The Emmaus High School boys wrestling team went 1-1 in two Eastern Pennsylvania Conference dual matches last week, taking down Freedom 37-30 last Wednesday at home, but falling to Nazareth the next night, 45-15 on the road. The Hornets concluded the week at the Denver Duals and Cocalico High School, winning two of three matches last Saturday.

In the victory over the Patriots, the Hornets jumped out to an 18-0 lead after Emilio Albanese picked up a win via forfeit at 107 pounds, and then both Jackson Max and Teagan Caciolo earned pins at 114 and 121 pounds. After Freedom got on the scoreboard with a pin at 127, Emmaus rattled off four wins in the next five bouts as Aiden Bayard (133), Logan Armstrong (139) and Xayden Sallit (152) all recorded decisions and Jesse Scott (160) tallied a major decision for a 31-12 advantage.

The Patriots cut their deficit to just 31-24, but Massimo Tranguch pinned Elliott Black at 215 to seal the win.

In the match with the Blue Eagles, Tranguch got things going with a decision at 215, and following a Nazareth pin at 285, Emmaus ran off three straight wins, including a Logan Maher pin at 107 and then back-to-back decisions by Albanese and Caciolo at 114 and 121, respectively, to take back the lead at 15-6. Those were the last victories of the match for the Hornets.

Emmaus opened the Denver Duals with a loss to Waynesboro, 37-31, but responded by defeating Red Lion 40-30 and then Annville-Cleona 51-15 to earn a fifth-place finish.

It was a close match with Red Lion as the Green Hornets won seven bouts to their six. It was a quick 12-0 start as Max earned a pin at 114 to get things going and then Cacaiolo won by forfeit at 121. The Lions then won the next four bouts to take a 20-12 advantage, but Sallit and Scott recorded a major decision and pin, respectively. Trailing 30-22 after Red Lion won two in a row, Tranguch, Logan Roth and Albanese tallied two pins and a forfeit to take the match.

It was not as close with the Dutchmen as the Hornets won 10 out of 13 bouts, including pins by Sallit, Scott, Albanese and Max and then victories thanks to forfeits for Armstrong, Tranguch and Ashir Choudhry.

Against Waynesboro, Max and Sallit won by fall for Emmaus, while Bayard earned a major decision and Tranguch battled to a 1-0 decision. Albanese and Caciolo picked up forfeit wins.

Emmaus has one of its busiest weeks of the 2023-24 regular season this week as it competes in three conference duals. The Hornets were at Liberty Tuesday night, host Whitehall on Wednesday and welcome East Stroudsburg North to Emmaus High School Friday to conclude the week. They wrap up the regular season with a home match against Pleasant Valley on Jan. 31.

Emmaus entered the week in 12th place in the District 11 rankings, but with four matches left on the schedule, including two against teams ahead of them in the rankings (Whitehall and Liberty), the Hornets still have a chance to move into the top eight teams and earn a place in the District 11 team tournament.