The Whitehall Zephyrs knew that the outcome of their meet against the Stroudsburg Mountaineers would be dependent on total pins, of which there were 11, in the Zephyrs’ 40-35 loss last Thursday night at Whitehall.

“A couple matches could have gone either way. We had a couple guys out tonight, but our guys that were wrestling, the guys who showed up, the guys that were there tonight, each of them gave this team everything they had,” said Whitehall coach Tim Cunningham. “We knew today was going to be who got the most pins, and unfortunately, they got the most pins.”

Johnny Colon had the first of Whitehall’s four pins at 126 lbs. against Stroudsburg’s Shawn Justin.

“I think the biggest thing was, I didn’t go straight for it. I didn’t rush it. I kind of built up my points, worked my opponent, then went for the pin,” said Colon, who won the match in 1:14. “I know some kids look at what their opponent does, but I don’t really look at that. I feel like my best matches are when I wrestle my style, what I do, to stay on offense. That’s what I do best.”

Whitehall’s Tyler Cunningham, at 132 lbs., pinned Gian Carlos Maldonado in 27 seconds after lifting the Mountaineer in an attempted takedown.

“When you lift him up, you have to bring him down safely, and it gives me more option to put him to the back right from there,” said Cunningham. “There was a little disappointment (that we lost), but we have some injuries.”

Seth Pascoe had a Zephyr pin at 145 lbs. against Killian Ursu, and at 285 lbs., Whitehall’s Anthony Saed pinned Nicholas Khamis.

Also for the Zephyrs, Xavier Arner won his match at 152 lbs. over Lorenzo Arostegui by technical fall, and Whitehall took a 23-22 lead.

“We’re performing where we want it to be,” said Coach Cunningham, “and we’ll continue to work on little things to get better every day.”

With one week left in the regular season, Whitehall will have traveled to Emmaus to take on the Hornets on Wednesday, past Press deadlines, before East Penn Conference championships on Saturday at Easton Middle School.

“Can’t wait,” Colon said. “We have EPC duals which should be fun, districts most likely. Every year, even though there’s some new kids, it’s always a close family.”