BC on top again
Bethlehem Catholic might have a new coach and a different crop of wrestlers, but the results stayed the same at the District 11 3A team tournament over the weekend.
The Golden Hawks may have come in with a scent of an underdog, but in reality, they remained the big bad wolf at Freedom High School, avenging a regular season loss to Easton to knock off the Rovers 32-23 Saturday evening.
Becahi won eight bouts in the rematch against the top-seeded Rovers, picking up two more wins from their first encounter back in early January.
Reef Dillard (114) flipped a 7-6 loss to Nicholas Salamone in their dual meet to an 11-4 decision this time around to give the Hawks one of the swing bouts they needed.
Marco Frinzi lost in the first meet to Ben Fanelli at 139, but was bumped up to 145 and pinned Jaron Trimmer in 3:41 to start a string of four straight wins to turn a 17-12 deficit into a 29-17 lead with three matches to go.
James Deluise clinched the win at 215 with a 12-5 decision over Shae Linegar to give the Hawks their fourth straight district championship.
With head coach Mike Cole in his first season at the helm of the program, pressure was always there for Becahi to continue its success and Saturday’s performances certainly validated that Becahi isn’t going anywhere.
“I am happy for the wrestlers,” said Cole. “There was a strong desire by them to beat Easton given they beat us earlier.
While winning was fun, but the state tournament is really all that matters. So, districts is just a steppingstone.”
The Hawks (12-1) started Saturday with a 51-12 win over Pottsville in the quarterfinals before dispatching Nazareth 29-21 in the semifinals to set the stage for a rematch with Easton.
After pulling out a tight win over Notre Dame the week before to give the group a confidence boost, along with the motivation heading into an Easton rematch, Becahi had plenty of momentum and ammunition to grab the team crown.
“Beating Notre Dame was a great tool for showing the boys the strength of team and how fun winning as a team is,” said Cole. “Beating Notre Dame was as valuable a tool as losing to Easton the first time.
“The message to the team [before the finals] was that this was just another match. Win or Lose we are going to states and winning there is the ultimate goal for the team. I reminded them to think about how they felt after losing first time to Easton. They certainly didn’t want to lose again.”
Liberty (10-7) exited Saturday’s tournament in the quarters following a 38-18 loss to Easton in the morning.
The Hurricanes won six of 13 bouts, but couldn’t muster any bonus points in the wins.
Kam Abboud did register a significant win over Ben Fanelli at 139, scoring a 3-1 decision with a takedown at the buzzer.
Davian Carasquillo (121), Derek Cruz (133), Adriaan DeLeon (145), Dante Morrison (215) and Seth Kolb (HWT) also picked up wins for Liberty.