A tough opening stretch of the season for the Northampton boys wrestling team continued last Wednesday as they took on defending PIAA 3A state champion Bethlehem Catholic in a dual meet at Becahi.

The K-Kids dropped a couple of close decisions in the opening bouts with the Hawks’ Mason Thomas scoring a takedown with 46 seconds left to edge Carter Chlebove 5-4 at 145 and the Kids’ Chase Grabfelder on the wrong side of a 9-5 score against Marco Frinzi.

Head coach Joe Provini explained the importance of the first two bouts, “Coming in our margin for error was small and 145 is not the weight I would choose start at if I had a choice. We needed to get those first two and wrestled two good bouts. We just came up on the short end of the stick and with a team like Bethlehem Catholic, you need everything to go your way.”

From there, Bethlehem Catholic racked up 4 straight first period pins to build a 30-0 advantage on their way to taking the team win 42-20.

The Kids got on the board when Gavin Grell received a forfeit at 285.

Brayden Wenrich claimed a 15-2 major decision at 114. He led 14-0 in the second period, so it was a bit a surprise that the match went the full 6 minutes.

Ryan Marano picked up a quick 1-minute pin at 121 to get Northampton to within 35-16, but the K-Kids would get no closer in the team score.

In the final bout of the night, Trey Wagner bested Ryder Campbell 10-0 in a rematch of last year’s NE Regional final at 127, also won by the K-Kid.

The most anticipated match took place at 127. The Hawks sent out 2-time state champion and recent Lehigh commit Keanu Dillard and Northampton countered with returning state medalist Gabe Ballard in a battle of two of the Lehigh Valley’s best pound-for-pound wrestlers.

Dillard scored a takedown in both the first and second periods on ankle picks and otherwise avoided getting into the crazy scrambles where Ballard excels to notch a 7-1 win.

Bethlehem Catholic 42 Northampton 20

145 Mason Thomas (BC) dec. Carter Chlebove (N) 5-4; 152 Marco Frinzi (BC) dec. Chase Grabfelder (N) 9-5; 160 Charlie Scanlan (BC) pinned Parker Williams (N) 1:02; 172 Shane McFillin (BC) pinned Logan Rusnock (N) 0:42; 189 James Deluise (BC) pinned Blayze Ibarra (N) 1:03; 215 Connor Gillahan (BC) pinned Joell Small (N) 1:29; 285 Gavin Grell (N) won by forfeit; 107 Nico Emili (BC) tech fall Ayden Clough (N) 15-0 3:33; 114 Brayden Wenrich (N) maj. dec. Andre Cerrato (BC) 15-2; 121 Ryan Marano (N) pinned Adrian Victoria (BC) 1:00; 127 Keanu Dillard (BC) dec. Gabriel Ballard (N) 7-1; 133 Reef Dillard (BC) maj. dec. Colin Marano (N) 9-1; 139 Trey Wagner (N) maj. dec. Ryder Campbell (BC) 10-0