The Emmaus wrestling program is good, but it's still not in the elite class of Lehigh Valley wrestling.

This past week, the Hornets went up against one of the elite in the Easton Red Rovers, who came into The Hive and downed the Hornets 53-12 in what could only be called a tough night for the Emmaus wrestlers.

To make things worse, Emmaus knew it was coming into the match having to forfeit at the heavyweight class, meaning they would have to find an unexpected win or two along the way.

After the first two matches, Easton picked up a win at 195 when the Rovers' Jagger Miller pinned Jacob Quier in 3:33 and followed that up with a major decision by Mike Catalano over Mike Montgomery for a 10-0 lead. After the forfeit, Easton's lead grew to 16-0. Emmaus took two of the next three matches, with Lucas Schaf winning by fall at 106 and Shane Brandes winning by a fall at 120 pounds, leaving the Hornets trailing 22-12. Unfortunately, the rest of the night belonged to Easton as it went on to win the next eight matches.

In preparing for the meet, coach Jeff Arbushites knew he was a little outmanned, but saw some opportunities where matches would be close and might offer his team a chance to pull off an upset.

"Realistically, I thought we had seven chances to win five matches and for the most part, it played out that way, but we didn't get the wins we needed," said Arbushites.

While the end result wasn't what he was looking for on the scoreboard, Arbushites felt that his team continued to develop and learned some things about themselves going up against a team as strong as the Red Rovers.

"I think we handled the pace very well. I think we handled their technical style very well," Arbushites said. "I think we got better as a team overall, but we have to understand that as a team, we have to take it to the next level and not try to hang with them, but try to outdo them."

After a couple of days to get over the loss, Emmaus hosted both Pocono Mountain West and Central Catholic on Saturday, with much better results. Against Pocono Mountain, Emmaus won nine matches, seven of them on pins. Plus, Lucas Schaf pulled off a 19-4 technical fall at 106 pounds. Schaf went on to win by a fall against Central Catholic to put his season record at 9-2, making him the team leader in wins.

Cole Franklin, Jansen Grabowski and Gordon Daichendt picked up pins in both matches on Saturday. Franklin now has eight wins on the season, while Grabowski and Daichendt each have seven.

"I thought our guys bounced back well today and really came out and did a nice job," said Arbushites.

Emmaus is now off until after the New Year when they have a meet at Northampton on January 2, followed by the Zephyr Duals on January 5 at Whitehall High School. Their wins on Saturday put the Hornets at 3-1 overall and 2-1 in the Lehigh Valley Conference.