To say the task at hand for Northampton’s wrestling team heading into Wednesday night’s clash with Bethlehem Catholic (which takes place after Press deadlines) as anything less than mammoth would be an understatement, but that is the beauty of sports and challenges competition presents.

Becahi (5-0) enters the contest with the state’s top 3A ranking and are very well the king of the mats in all formats in Pennsylvania, sporting a nifty No. 7 national ranking by FloWrestling to go with their accolades.

Northampton (8-0) comes in fresh off a confidence building weekend, as they took home the Cumberland Valley Duals title with a 47-27 victory over 2016 state runner-up Boyertown to cap off a 4-0 weekend at the event.

But everyone knew that Wednesday’s battle with the Hawks would be a totally different encounter, one that the Kids were fully prepared for.

“We are excited about the opportunity to wrestle the best team in the state,” said head coach Seth Lisa. “If we want to win, its going to take a complete team effort. We understand this is a big obstacle. Matches like this are a lot of fun. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain.”

Wednesday’s bout was easily the most coveted battle of the watered-down East Penn Conference calendar so far this season, with its results coming past Press deadlines, but Becahi head coach Jeff Karam was also happy to get into a tussle where his wrestlers would truly be tested, especially since the Hawks took down Parkland with relative ease in last week’s 52-6 victory.

“We’re very excited to get an opportunity to wrestle against a very good Northampton team,” said Karam. “They really match up well against us and it should be a great dual meet.”

The Trojans were able to snatch two decisions in a bout that featured multiple Becahi starters out due to sickness. Karam thought he’d have more healthy bodies ready for Wednesday’s dual, but wasn’t counting on it.

Northampton’s strength in the lineup stems from their lightweights, where the likes of Julian Chlebove (126), KJ Fenstermacher (132) and Dan Moran (138) present a trio of wrestlers that will look for bonus points against Becahi.

Karam felt that 106, 126, 138 and 145 would be key bouts in the match. Lisa knows that his team will have to steal wins all over the lineup, get bonus points from their big guns and limit damage in the upper weights, where the Hawks hold an advantage.

“We are tough down low but so is Beca,” said Lisa. “There are going to be a bunch of toss-ups and if we have any shot of winning this dual, we need to take them all. As far as bonus, they [Becahi] have areas where bonus points are guaranteed. If we want to win, we have to offset that bonus.”

Over the weekend the Kids registered four wins at Cumberland Valley, with the championship victory over Boyertown already mentioned. They also knocked off Northern 67-9, Cumberland Valley 33-29 and Erie McDowell 66-12.

“We had four big matches at CV and I’m very happy with the way things turned out,” said Lisa. “We won a couple big dual meets with some of our hammers losing matches down below. That was a huge confidence builder for the upper part of our line up. The team needed them and they stepped up.”

Following Wednesday’s bout with Becahi, Northampton will hit the road to Council Rock South for the prestigious Escape the Rock Tournament.

Moran and Chlebove each won titles at last year’s tournament, as well as Fenstermacher with Liberty.