MACON – Their state journey started out in disappointing fashion, but the LaGrange Grangers bounced back in a big way.

After falling to Jones County in the opening round of the Class AAAAA state duals on Thursday, the LaGrange High wrestling team returned to the mat and beat Effingham County 48-28.

LaGrange will look to stay alive in the tournament this afternoon when it faces the loser of a winner’s bracket match between Camden County and Starr’s Mill.

Starr’s Mill edged LaGrange to win the Area 1-AAAAA championship, so there would be plenty of motivation for the Grangers in that match.

“(The wrestlers) want another shot at them, and I do too,” LaGrange head coach Scooter Weathers said.

LaGrange opened its state stay with a 46-30 loss to Jones County.

It was a match Weathers felt his team had a great chance to win, but it didn’t happen.

“It came down the last couple of matches,” Weathers said. “We wrestled good, we just got caught in a couple of places, and they got us. We wrestled really well, and they di, too. If we’d wrestle 10 times, I think we’d beat them eight times. They just beat us one of those two times.”

That loss set up a loser’s bracket matchup with Effingham County, which lost to Woodland 57-18 in the first round.

LaGrange dominated the match and beat Effingham County 48-28 to stay alive.

De’Erious Sands, Dakota Wilson, Matt Watford and Emmanuel Mann each went 2-0, and Guy Wegienka, John Todd Bohn, Dominique Copeland and Demetrius Deon won matches as well.

Reach Kevin Eckleberry at (706) 884-7311 or on Twitter @lagrangesports