The Whitehall wrestling team trekked up to the frosty north to begin the season and came away with a warm feeling as they won their opener against Pocono Mountain West High School.

They took down the Panthers 54-19 in the season opener, winning 10 bouts en route to the victory. Of those victories, five cam via pins as the Zephs recovered from an early deficit to record wins in the last eight bouts to seal the victory.

At 152, Kai Clark started them rolling with a fall over Stephen Weirich, pinning him in 2:32.

The Panthers won the next bout to even the score at 6-6. Sean Cunningham (170) put the Zephs back on top, earning a tough 5-4 decision over Ceasar Lewis.

The Panthers won the next three bouts until Izak Bright registered a fall, decking Steven Mckenna in1:34 at 285 lbs.

The Zephs won the next three matches by forfeit, overtaking the Panthers, and then padded that lead when Xavier Arner (126) pinned Cameron Fitzgerald in 0:49.

Caleb Staub followed with a 4-2 decision over Charlie Palomino at 132, while Joshua Grol and Aiden Toussaint closed out the match with pins, as Grol decked Andrew Sanchez in 1:07, and Toussaint pinned Kevin Hernandez in 3:2

Head coach Tim Cunningham said that it was a productive trip that resulted in a lot of wrestlers gaining valuable varsity experience.

While the scoreboard showed a W, Cunningham said that there are areas they still need to address.

“We need to make a lot of improvements with our fundamentals and continue working on nonstop scoring mentality,” said Cunningham.

A big test will come Wednesday when they travel to Bethlehem to meet Liberty.

“We will see if our guys go out and compete against one of the toughest teams in the state Wednesday,” said Cunningham. “We would love to see our guys just go out and try to score points no matter what the match score is for each individual.”