SMYRNA — Aaron Harris likes to lay out all the possible scenarios to his team before a match.

He wants his Smyrna High wrestlers to know how he thinks things might go.

And Harris wanted the Eagles to know that beating rival Caesar Rodney on Wednesday night was far from a given.

But Smyrna exceeded even its coach’s best-case scenarios in some ways as it upended the Riders, 46-32, in its annual Henlopen North mat showdown.

After getting knocked off by Milford on Saturday, the Eagles (3-1 North) needed a bounce-back win to stay in the thick of the North race.

“It’s a bitter rivalry, we always want to beat CR,” said Harris. “To be in the mix (in the North), we knew we had to win this match. And we knew we had to fix some individual things and I think we did a good job with that this week in practice.

“I liked the fight. I liked the lessons that we did in practice and implemented them in a match.”

Smyrna has now won four straight over the Riders (3-1 North, 3-2 overall) since falling to them by a point in the 2018 DIAA Division I dual-meet state finals.

With Wednesday’s bout starting at 106 pounds, it went back-and-forth for a while. It was 11-11 after four matches and the Eagles were ahead only 22-20 after 152.

But Smyrna then reeled off four pins in a row to take a commanding 46-20 advantage and sew up the victory with a pair of matches still remaining.

Harris said he especially liked the pins Smyrna got from Nathan Lesniczak at 170 and Gavin Porter at 182. Both came in the first period.

“I presented a scenario to the team how we could win,” said Harris. “We had to win at 170 and we had to win at 182 — not expecting pins at either one — but in the scenario I presented, we had to win those two weights. And that’s what happened, I was pleasantly surprised.”

In all, the Eagles collected six pins and a pair of tech falls. Also winning by pin for Smyrna were Wyatt Miller (106), Jamar Wells (132), Joseph Natarcola (160) and Tyler Downward (195).

Wells’ fall came in just 50 seconds.

The Riders answered with pins from Marlon Smith (120), William Bush (145), Josh Dyer (220) and Kevin Hudson (285).

The Henlopen North title race seems especially crowded this winter with CR, Cape Henlopen, Milford, Smyrna and Sussex Central all in the chase.

On Saturday, the Riders host Sussex Central at noon while Smyrna goes to Wilmington for a 6:30 p.m. non-conference match at Salesianum. The Sals have already beaten CR and Sussex Central.

The Eagles then close the regular season with North matches against Sussex Central and Cape Henlopen at home.

Harris said he wants his wrestlers to go into the Sallies’ match just as motivated as they were on Wednesday night.

“We go back and we do the same things that we did last week,” he said. “We pretend that we lost tonight and we fix the individual issues that we have and continue to get better. We go into Sallies on Saturday. … looking to get better and come out with a win.

“Absolutely they (the Sals) have got our attention. But we’ll be ready for it.