Last Wednesday, the Whitehall wrestling team faced their toughest dual meet opponent of the season so far when Nazareth came to town. Having already lost to Easton this year, the Blue Eagles are not the state championship contender that they have been over the last handful of seasons, but they are still formidable.

The two squads gave the fans in attendance an entertaining evening as the meet was not decided until the penultimate bout of the evening at 114. Nazareth got the win 44-27, but the Zephyrs can be proud of their showing.

Head coach Tim Cunningham assessed the performance, “We look forward to it (competing with Nazareth). That’s the attitude we have. It’s an opportunity to see where we’re at, at this time of the year. We have a lot of things we have to work on. We preached effort and the desire to win more than your opponent. Most of guys went out there and gave everything they had and believed they were going to win.”

The match started at 127 and Nazareth’s Dominic Rizzotto won by tech. fall over Damond Pascoe, 16-0.

In the 133-pound bout, Whitehall’s Nolan Schmeckenbecher used a first period take down, a third period reversal and almost 5 minutes of riding time to defeat Matteo Martincavage 4-0.

Nazareth got a couple of falls at 139 and 145 from a couple of their standouts. Tahir Parkins pinned Trokon Kai in 1:10 and Jack Campbell pinned Romello Leibensperger in 2:39.

The Zephs’ Seth Pascoe battled with Jack Rea at 152 scoring a first period takedown, riding out the Blue Eagle in the second period, and going up 5-0 in the third period before getting a pin in 4:32 to make the team score 17-9.

Nazareth posted 2 more falls at 160 and 172. Elijah Simak pinned Layony Sanchez in 2:10 and Brayden Zuercher pinned Elijah Brito in 5:09.

Whitehall’s James Hopkins went to 9-0 on the season with a pin at 189. He piled up 6 takedowns against Vincent Giacobbe before getting the fall at 2:42.

Dalton Wickel scored the quickest Zephyr pin of the night as he earned 6 team points in 1:13 against Carter Ferrara to bring the team score to 29-21.

The teams traded falls at the heaviest and lightest weights. At 285, Nazareth’s two-time state champion Sean Kinney pinned Ryan Tran in 0:43. At 107, Wilmont Kai pinned Derek Fulmer in 3:30 after building up an 11-3 lead. The sophomore improved to 9-0 on the season. The team score stood at 35-27 with two bouts remaining.

In an evening full of pins, 114 provided a match that went down to the final seconds. The Zephyrs’ Kade Pascoe and Remy Trach battled the full 6 minutes. Pascoe led early with a takedown in the first 10 seconds of the bout. A late second period takedown gave him a 4-3 advantage going to the third. A quick escape gave him a 2-point lead, but Trach equalized at the five-minute mark. Perhaps sensing some fatigue, Trach gave the escape with 42 seconds left and managed score the winning takedown with 6 ticks left on the clock.

At 121 in the final bout of the night, Cooper Wenrich pinned Whitehall’s Rocco DeLucia in 4:27.

Next up for the team is the Bethlehem Holiday Wrestling Classic at Liberty High School on Thursday and Friday. With the exception of Bethlehem Catholic, the event features the strongest local wrestling programs and provides an early look into the postseason prospects of the participating wrestlers.