LEWISBURG -- Lewisburg head coach Jim Snyder was hoping for a red-hot start to the Green Dragons' Heartland Athletic Conference Division II showdown with Bloomsburg Thursday night. What he got was a luke-warm beginning in a 41-28 loss to the Panthers.

Snyder was relying on the Green Dragons getting wins in the first four bouts of the match that started at 215 pounds. But Bloomsburg's Mike Recla, who needed to shed a bit of weight before stepping on the scales earlier in the evening, used a third-period takedown to pull out a 3-1 decision over Cody Fisher in the opener and under-sized 112-pounder Alan Evans upset Lewisburg's Zach Morrell with a first period fall thanks to a tight headlock.

The loss kept Lewisburg without a win in the HAC-II at 0-3 and even their overall record at 6-6.

"We needed a hot start and we didn't get it. We didn't get it done," Snyder said. "From there on we were in trouble. When we got pinned at 112 you could just feel the air go out of our bench. It was almost impossible to come back from that and we couldn't make a move we wanted to make later in the match. Any moves we wanted to make in the match were taken away with the kind of start we had."

Lost in the disappointing beginnings were solid performances from Darrick Clark (285) and Jordan Danowsky (103). Clark broke open a close match with a second period head lock that decked Bloom heavyweight Tyler Lunger in 3:42 while Danowsky picked up a four-point move at the end for a 13-4 major decision over Jared Hahn. Those wins handed Lewisburg a 10-3 lead.

"Jordy and Clarky wrestled well and they kind of got back to where we needed to be," Snyder said. "Jordy gets those four points in the last 10 seconds for the major. But it just wasn't enough."

It wasn't enough because Evans, in just his second year of wrestling and weighing in at only 109 pounds pinned Morrell after falling behind when he surrendered the first takdedown of the match.

"Every single match (Evans) is improving," Bloomsburg coach Dan Sevison said. "He came up with something big and I am proud of him. The headlock is his move, guess."

Evans' fall started a six-match win streak for the Panthers (2-2 HAC-II, 8-5 overall) that quickly erased the Green Dragons' advantage. Corey Buckley topped Andrew Fox, 8-1, at 119 and Garrett Graham decked Sean Klingman in 1:09 at 125.

At 130, Bloomsburg's Allan Dietrick used three sets of backpoints to roll over Conner Kalin, 15-0 (4:40), and Robert Kresch decked Dylan Kalin in just 57 seconds a weight later. Troy Franko completed the run with an even quicker fall (26 seconds) over Torey Van Sickle that handed the Panthers a 35-10 lead.

Lewisburg finally ended the streak when Bloom forfeited to Curt Schneider at 145. But in a heated battle at 152, the Panthers veteran Colton Eyer outlasted Brian Van Sickle, 10-4, with a five-takedown effort that wrapped up the win.

The Green Dragons Eric Hummel (160) collected a forfeit and Nathaniel Brown followed with a second-period fall at 171. The Panthers promising sophomore Ryan Longenberger ended the night with an 8-2 decision over Jacob Parkes.

"January is the month that you start building for the postseason and today was good step toward that," Sevison said.

Snyder was left searching for positives after another disappointing loss.

"It's not like we are coming out here and getting our doors blown off," said Snyder, whose team gave Shamokin a bit of a scare last Saturday. "But this league is so tough. There are no easy nights in this league. We are competitive but I just don't know how long that continues.