Nico Scarcia entered the fifth-place match at last weekend's District 11 Class AA wrestling champioships with everything on the line and the odds stacked against him.

The Salisbury senior was facing Notre Dame's Reese Cornish, a senior returning regional qualifier who went 27-4 in the regular season to earn the No. 3 seed in a tough 145-pound bracket. Scarcia went 10-12 and came in as the 11th seed.

Cornish had beaten Scarcia three times this season, including a first-period pin in the second round of districts.

But the past didn't matter. The winner of the fifth-place match would earn a spot at regionals. The loser would be finished.

After the most important six minutes of his wrestling career, Scarcia's hand was raised, an 8-3 winner who will continue next week at the Southeast Regional Tournament at Wilson-West Lawn.

"I just went out thinking I'm not losing to this kid," Scarcia said. "I'm going to give it my all to place and make it to the regional tournament."

Scarcia was one of three Salisbury wrestlers to place at districts. Junior Alex Nicholas took fourth place at 285 and will also move on to regionals. Junior Zach Adams placed sixth at districts.

Scarcia attributed his success to the aggressiveness he started showing late this season.

"I finally started taking shots," he said. "I used to be a defensive wrestler. Now I'm on the offense.

"That certainly helped me in that fifth-place match. I took (Cornish) down three times and I've only taken him down once this season and I've wrestled him four times."

Salisbury head coach Eric Snyder knew his only senior would have a tough road from the 11th seed. But he also knew Scarcia matched up well with his first opponent, North Schuylkill's Joe Alexander at No. 6.

After beating Alexander 5-0 then getting pinned by Cornish in 1:15, Scarcia battled to a 10-0 consolation bracket win over Schulkill Haven's Wolfgang Hafer anda 1-0 win over Catasauqua's Devin Greene, avenging a regular season loss.

Scarcia lost his consolation semifinal to Saucon Valley's Dylan Yonney to fall into the fifth-place match.

"Nico has been wrestling well as of late," said Snyder. "He's definitely peaking at the right time. He came ready to go. Ultimately he wanted it more than Cornish did.

"He has to commit on his shots. That's what he started doing at the end of the season in a lot of the dual meets leading up to the tournament."

Scarcia said some late-season practices with the Whitehall team helped boost his confidence. He went head to head with Class AAA sixth-place finisher Robert Tully, a 152-pounder.

He knows the regional tournament will be difficult but he's ready for it. After 10 years on mat, starting as a second grader in the Salibsury Youth Association program, he's happy to have a chance to keep his career going.

"I'm just going out there and giving it my all," he said. "I'm proud of how far I've come and what I've done to get here, but I definitely want to try and make it as far as I can."

Nicholas will head to regionals with the same goal.

He entered districts as a No. 6 seed at 285 after competing at 220 for most of the season.

He went 18-8 during the season and opened the tournament with a 4-2 win over Lehighton's Alexander Smith. He upset Northern Lehigh's Cameron Kates with a 3-2 win via ultimate tiebreaker, earning a semifinal match against Pius X's Anthony Greggo.

This time Nicholas lost a 3-2 ultimate tiebreaker, but he wrestled back in the consolation match, pinning Pine Grove's Scott Werner in 2:01 to secure a spot in the third-place match and a regional tournament berth.

"Moving up from 220 to heavyweight, I didn't really know what to expect," said Nicholas. "I had to wrestle smart and keep my distance from the guys that had some weight on me, watch for big moves. I feel like I did a good job of that, not getting pinned in the tournament and taking some of these guys until late in the periods."

He met Kates again in the third-place match. Kates edged him 3-2.

"He wrestled well," said Snyder of Nicholas. "Coming off that loss, he wrestled 45 minutes later and he came back ready to go and he pinned the kid in the consolation semis. Then he saw Kates again in another close match."

Nicholas is excited to see what he can do at regionals. It's only his third year wrestling and he's looking forward to the experience he'll pick up next weekend.

"I just want to wrestle as hard as I can and know that I did everything I could do," Nicholas said.

If he does that, he could pick up more than just experience.

"We have the utmost confidence in these guys," said Snyder. "If he wrestles the way he's capable of, he's got a good shot to still be wrestling after next week."

The ultimate prize for the two regional qualifiers is to earn a trip to Hershey next weekend. The top six advance out of each weight class, which includes 14 or 15 wrestlers in each.

Salisbury's other district place winner will look to next year for another opportunity to advance.

Adams, a junior who was one of the team's best all season, earned the No. 6 seed at 120 after going 19-6 during the season.

He opened with a win over Saucon Valley Angelo Mahaffy then lost, 7-4 to No. 4 seed Zachary Kemmerer of Lehighton.

Adams wrestled back with two consolation wins. He pinned Williams Valley's Dagan Dickinson and won a 5-2 decision over Catty's Tyler Melendez.

Adams fell to Central Catholic's Jack Yanders in the consolation semifinal then lost a 4-2 decision to Panther Valley's Tanner Kennedy in the fifth-place match.

"I was kind of expecting to make it to regionals, but placing is always fine," he said. "My last two matches were close. I probably could have won both."

"He gave the takedown up in the last 10 seconds of the match," said Snyder, referring to the fifth-place bout. "It wasn't a big mistake, but one mistake can cost you in the match.

"Take nothing away from Zach. He battled hard all year. There were times I bumped him up to 132. He did whatever we asked. Zach had an outstanding season. He should be proud of the way he wrestled. I think he'll learn from it. Hopefully we'll see three of four guys wrestled at regionals next year."

Several other Falcons wrestled well at districts, but came up short of placing.

Sophomore Shane Simononis (152) went 15-11 during the season and earned a No. 6 seed. He lost his first bout to the No. 11 seed, but battled back with a couple wins in the consolation bracket. One more win and Simononis would have been wrestling for a top-six spot.

Salisbury sophomore Michael Murphy went 4-20 in the season and some of those were forfeit wins. But he came out and pinned his opponent in a 106-pound pigtail match before losing his next two bouts.

Freshman Peter Dubois went 0-2 but the No. 13 seed lost just 6-5 in his consolation match.

Dillon Trenge, a No. 14 seed at 182, went 0-2 but took his consolation-round opponent into sudden victory before falling 3-1.

Salisbury junior Antonio Alvarado (132) and sophomores Dante Martinez (195) and Bailey Marcks (220) all went 0-2, but wrestled well in defeat, said Snyder.

"All the kids wrestled well," he said. "We're proud of the way that they wrestled this weekend."