The senior Emmaus wrestlers made their first trip to districts in their high school career, but unfortunately, it was a short stay. An old nemesis, the Northampton Konkrete Kids, came from behind to knock the Hornets out of districts in the preliminary round, taking a 48-27 win.

Things started well for the Hornets, who jumped out to an early lead, taking the first four bouts - Jacob Younger (132 pounds), Cole Franklin (138), Jansen Grabowski (145) and Mac Lawrence (152) all picked up victories on pins - to take a quick 24-0 lead. From there though, things fell apart as Northampton rallied. It started with Northampton getting a win by forfeit at 160 pounds and then grabbing eight of the next nine bouts.

"Coming in, I knew that if we could win nine bouts, we'd be in good shape, so when we got the first four, it looked pretty good," said coach Jeff Arbushites.

Two of the wins that Emmaus had hoped to get but didn't, came at 106 and 285 pounds. Freshman standout Lucas Schaf lost a close 7-6 bout at 106 and Ty Marinelli was able to pin Mike Montgomery at 285 pounds to cut Emmaus' lead to 27-24. Northampton tied the bout with the win at 106 and go ahead to stay when Shane Brandes was pinned 3:06 into the 113-pound bout.

The only other win for Emmaus came at 195 pounds when Thomas Alcaro grabbed a 3-1 win over Northampton's Jason Kocher.

Emmaus came into districts seeded eighth, just ahead of ninth-seeded Northampton thanks to a regular season win over the Konkrete Kids. That win broke a losing skid against Northampton that reached back to 1979. The Hornets fell in the rankings thanks to a 58-9 loss to Parkland in the season's final match.

Arbushites knew that Northampton would be a tough draw for the Hornets and that they would be looking for revenge after Emmaus' regular season win over the Konkrete Kids.

"To be honest, I was a little surprised at how quick we started against Northampton," Arbushites said. "To start with four straight falls was a little unexpected, so we thought we would be in good shape to get the nine wins we needed."

After beating Emmaus, Northampton lost to eventual District 11 champion Easton, which downed Parkland 28-26 in the championship match.

With team districts behind them, the Hornets now turn their attention to individual achievements. The individual duals take place February 22 and 23 at Liberty High School and there are some fairly optimistic expectations going into the individual duals for Emmaus wrestlers.

"We should have a few of our guys go on to regionals and it's not out of the question that we'll have a wrestler or two at Hershey [the site of the PIAA tournament]," said Arbushites.