AKRON — Tippecanoe Valley’s wrestling team may not have come away with a win in the record books Wednesday, but the Vikings did finish plus-eight in the matches they wrestled.

A trio of Valley forfeits at 120, 170 and heavyweight spotted visiting Peru 18 points out of the gate, and, despite a gutsy effort by the Vikings lineup in the rest of the weight classes, the home team couldn’t quite make up the deficit in a 46-36 loss to the Tigers in Akron.

“We have 15 kids on this team. I’d give anything to have a few more, and I know we will in years to come,” said Valley coach Kyler Kearby. “This is the biggest team we’ve had in probably three or four years, so I’m not going to take anything away from these guys. These guys will battle. We’re down 18-0 with those forfeits, but you take away those, we beat them. There’s nothing you can do about it.”

The Vikings did manage six wins in the remaining 11 matches, all of them by pinfall.

With his team already down 22-0, Jacob Eherenman put Valley on the board with his first period pinfall of Peru’s Kayden Gee at 132 pounds, but it was Jordan Owen who gave the Vikings their biggest spark at 145.

Trailing Levi Cunningham 9-2 late in the second period following a Cunningham escape and takedown, Owens managed a reversal and pin with 25 seconds left in the period, and Valley rolled that momentum into four straight pinfalls to pull as close as 34-30 in the team tally.

“He was a regional qualifier last year, and the reason he made it there is because he wrestles with a lot of heart,” recalled Kearby of Owens. “He’s getting beaten and he’s getting beaten handily, but Owens, you know he’s going to keep wrestling. As with any kid that’s all I can ask. He kept battling, he created a position to put the kid on his back, and he had a huge pin. That started us all the way through the wrestling lineup.”

Jon Humes scored an early takedown of Matt Johnson and pretty much coasted to a first period pinfall win at 152, and Peru’s Ziam Constable narrowly survived his first period opposite Valley’s Chevy Teeter, who finally finished him midway through the second at 160. Out of respect for Jordan Rader — a two-time state qualifier ranked fourth in the state in his weight class by Indianamat.com — the Vikings vacated the 170-pound match Wednesday as Kearby bumped Isaac Randall, Joseph Irons and Isaac Lowe each up a class, and two of the three delivered victories.

Randall secured a late fall of Zach Ashley in the third period at 182 to cut the Vikings’ team deficit to just four points at 34-30, but they never got any closer as Irons’ pinfall loss to Devin Reagle late in the first period at 195 put Peru out of reach. Lowe finished Luke Voirol just 1:12 into their 220-pound match, and Valley’s forfeit at heavyweight brought the score to its final margin.

“We have an older group there from about 45 to about 70,” Kearby explained. “I look at it pretty much all the way through we’re solid. Right there with Peru, though, we matched up. They matched up better in the light weights, and I knew we could beat them in the middle. That was a big swing match with Owens. The rest of those guys I trust that they could get it done, and they did.”

It was a big night for Valley wrestling, which invited program alumni to take a bow at the main gym in Akron, and the Vikings rallied to make it an exciting meet for a respectable crowd.

“This was a big night for us to have this main gym. I appreciate everybody coming out. It was exciting for me, and I hope it was for the fans,” said Kearby.

Valley slips to 1-5 with the loss to its Three Rivers Conference rival after starting the season with a 1-4 finish at the Culver Academy Super 6 Nov. 19. As with Wednesday’s dual, forfeits did the Vikings in in two of those losses at Culver as the team fell by just six points to both Triton and Knox at the season-opener.

“It could very easily be 3-3, but we wrestled 10 the first weekend and that hurt us,” Kearby said.

“As far as intensity, and the way they went out there and competed, we’ve grown a lot the last year or two, as far as our confidence and just stepping out there on the mat knowing that we trust ourselves and we can win some matches. We’re still continuously getting better with our technique. We’ve got to keep polishing that up. I wouldn’t say we’re where we want to be technique-wise, but we’re getting better each and every time out.”

Next up for Valley is the Maconaquah Invitational Saturday morning.