POULSBO — The Central Kitsap wrestling team has lost only two meets this year, and Tuesday night they showed North Kitsap why.

The Cougars’ sophomore-heavy team overcame an early North Kitsap lead to win 10 of the 14 matches of the night (including a pair of forfeits) and win 48-18.

“They’ve got some tough kids,” said Viking head coach Larry Maguire, “and they wrestled pretty well.”

The Vikings were without their biggest weapon, 152-lb. state hopeful Clark Hutchman, who, while defeating CK’s Josh Martinelli this weekend at a tournament in Central Kitsap, slightly injured his shoulder.

So Hutchman sat and watched as the rest of the Vikings tried to make up for the loss.

The Vikings’ evening opened with a loss, after 112-lb. Cougar Tyson Hicks built up a 15-3 lead over Robert Lucas before earning a pin to give his team a 6-0 advantage.

The Vikings earned some of those points back due to Robert Lucas, who built up an impressive lead of his own to win a 14-4 decision over Central’s Travis Towne.

The Vikings’ Jordan Andersen continued his stellar season by winning a technical fall (16-0) over Ryan Poppe, Central’s 125-lb. representative. With Andersen’s win, North briefly grabbed a lead, 9-6.

But Central snatched the lead back at 130 and 135 pounds, where Kyle Cauette and Jason Mendez won by forfeit.

Mike Frerichs won a hard-fought match, 8-2, over North Kitsap’s Phillip Baker, while Phillip’s brother, Mike, won a 3-2 decision over Central’s Tyler Cowgill.

At 145 pounds, Joe Vierra stepped in for Clark Hutchman against Central’s Marinelli.

Vierra wrestled well, hand-fighting and feinting Marinelli throughout the first quarter — though the Cougar drew first blood by scoring a takedown at the end of the first.

Vierra countered with an escape in the third quarter, but Marinelli scored a flurry of points in the second and third period to get the 15-7 win.

A similar flurry also got a win for Central’s Mike Custer, who won a 6-1 decision over Peter Gilbreath after the two wrestlers stayed close for two periods.

The Vikings earned six team points back at 171 pounds, where Mark Sargeant won a forfeit.

But the next few matches were unsuccessful for North Kitsap. Jarod Jennings lost an 18-5 decision, Chase Dukes was pinned, and Tim Keane was also pinned.

In the final match of the night, Central’s Austin Templeton put a cap on the win with a pin of Tim Lucas.

Central Kitsap coach Jim Northcutt was happy with his team’s effort. “They wrestled really loose, he said. “They had fun.”

Maguire, whose Vikings dropped to 7-9 (3-3 in league), was happy with a few of his efforts, including the Bakers, Gipson, Vierra, Andersen, and Tim Lucas.

“I was pleased with several of our kids,” he said, “but we didn’t have enough of them.”