The Cary and Green Hope wrestling teams are arguably the two top teams in the Tri-Eight this season and will likely represent the conference in the state dual team tournament later this winter.

While Green Hope is in the midst of the best season in its 10-year history, Cary demonstrated that the gap between Nos. 1 and 2 was still fairly wide with a 48-15 win against the Falcons on Thursday.

The Imps won 11 matches to Green Hope’s 3, but they didn’t steamroll the Falcons like they have for years. Cary did not clinch the win until the evening’s 12th bout, and of the 11 wins, five were by decision.

“We had two close matches, and they won both of them,” said Green Hope coach Chip Bunn, whose team has a 22-4 record in dual matches. “Had we won both of them, it would have been a little bit closer. I thought we wrestled well. We could’ve done a little better. … We kept it under 50 points. It’s the best we’ve ever done against them, so that at least says our kids are working hard.”

The Falcons were without their top wrestler, 130-pounder Scott Norris, who suffered a shoulder injury during practice earlier in the week.

“They fought real hard,” said Cary coach Jerry Winterton. “Scott Norris being out of the lineup hurt them. They’ve got a good thing going here.”

The match began at 171 pounds, and Cary’s Brett Colyer and Green Hope’s Richard Yount entertained the nearly packed gym.

Yount overcame a 4-1 deficit in the third period, then scored a late escape point to force overtime. With the match tied 7-7, Colyer took down Young 10 seconds into the sudden-death period to earn a 9-7 decision and three points for the Imps.

“I was tired,” Colyer said. “I heard them chanting my name, so I just pushed it harder and got it with that drag out.”

Green Hope senior 189-pounder Scott LaChapelle led Cary’s Alec Snow 6-2 late in the third period before reversing Snow and pinning him with 7.3 seconds remaining in their match.

A Cary forfeit at 215 pushed the Falcons’ lead to 12-3.

Imps heavyweight Eloheim Palma pinned Green Hope’s Mike Burdett 83 seconds into the second period, and a Falcons forfeit at 103 gave Cary a 15-12 lead it never relinquished.

After a string of anticlimactic bouts, Cary sophomore Harrison Rosenbaum and Green Hope junior Chris Godfrey battled back and forth for six minutes in the 112-pound match.

Rosenbaum took a 4-1 lead into the second period and Godfrey evened the match at 4-4 with a last-second takedown. Rosenbaum built a 7-4 lead in the third, but Godfrey came back to tie it at 7-7.

With 15 seconds to go in regulation, Rosenbaum escaped from Godfrey’s grasp and held on for an 8-7 decision, giving the Imps an 18-12 lead.

“You look over and you see coach Winterton telling you to get up, you get up,” Rosenbaum said. “We’ve been practicing that all week. It’s all in the [practice] room. Everything starts in the room.”

Cary’s Cordale Risk scored an 8-3 decision at 119 before Green Hope’s Mikal Mannan earned a 6-4 decision at 125. Mannan’s victory was the 100th of his career.

Up 21-15, the Imps won all six of the evening’s remaining matches.

Lawrence White earned a 19-4 technical fall at 130, Matt Colvard won a 10-6 decision at 135, Justin Koren won 5-0 at 140, and Brendon Parker-Risk won by major decision (12-2) at 145.

Josh Cobb, at 152, and Gabe Brotzman, at 160, closed out the match with back-to-back pins.

The win kept Cary undefeated in dual matches (18-0), and Winterton said he’s happy with where his team is at this point in the season.

“We’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing and not let anybody sneak up on us,” he said. “And we’ve got to get better ourselves.”