The 2021 Parkland wrestling regular season is nearly history. Last week the Trojans displayed solid wrestling against Dieruff and Northwestern Lehigh, but for the second time in two weeks, stubbed their toes against rival Emmaus.

Parkland had no trouble in a Jan. 27 battle with the Huskies, earning a 72-6 victory as Parkland won nine matches by forfeit. Juan Moya at 145, Mikeal Palmieri at 152 and Alex Neely at 215 all pinned their opponents.

Two nights later, the Trojans were defeated by visiting Emmaus 42-16. Parkland’s Phoenix DelVecchio won his 126-pound match with a 6-1 decision over Deylain Newton, continuing a fine season for the youngster.

“Phoenix has improved dramatically since last year,” said Parkland coach Jon Trenge. “He has vastly improved his match strategy and his tactics. He has gotten bigger and a lot strong and his technique on bottom is a major improvement of his.”

Other Parkland winners against Emmaus included Adrian Gacek who pinned Jack Brion at 172 in 3:01, 189-pounder Alex Neely who won a tight 7-6 decision over Cody Lafaver and Blake Dergham who won a 12-3 major decision over Alex Issa at 106.

“Blake is very offensive and aggressive,” Trenge said. “He likes to shoot and attack. He also like to ride on top, and we are trying to get him to work more turns on top and move a little more on his feet instead of on his knees in the neutral position.”

The question becomes this - how do you get a young wrestler to think aggressively on the mat without taking too many risks to be scored on?

“This is a skill that requires really knowing each athlete,” Trenge said. “Sometimes our athlete is the underdog. In that case the goal is to keep them in position to win the match early on. In other words, weather the storm and manage the score.

“Keep it close until later in the match when they are more tired, then go for the win. Ultimately, if you were expected to lose, this is a descent strategy.”

How about if going in you’re the favorite?

“The goal is to go out and score early in the match and just keep right on scoring,” said Trenge. “When you get ahead, the other person has to attack you to make up the difference and you can take advantage of that by scoring with counter offense and defensive moves.

“It is imperative that every wrestler has a go-to offense that they can score with when the other person is just trying to not get taken down.”

Last Saturday night Parkland took care of a good Northwestern team 39-24.

Mackenzie DelVecchio won a decision over the Tigers’ Katie Brensinger at 132. Edwin Moya defeated Nathan Peters 8-2 in the 160-pound battle.

Other Trojan winners on that mat that night were Gacek, Neely, Fitzgerald, Afif, Dergham, Contes and Phoenix DelVecchio. With the win, Parkland improved to 4-2.