In a wrestling match between two closely matched teams, the winner is often determined by who wins the toss up bouts and which team gets the most bonus points in their wins.

When Northampton and District XI 3A newcomer Notre Dame – Green Pond faced off on Saturday in the quarterfinals of the District Duals, the Crusaders got the best of both categories. They won both bouts that were within a three-point takedown and they scored more bonus points 10-8 on their way to advancing to the semifinals 31-26.

The match got off to an inauspicious start for the K-Kids as NDGP’s Noah Knorp turned his heavyweight contest into a battle of escapes. Neither big man scored a takedown and frankly, there were not many committed attempts to score one. Knorp wound up being able to take the down position in the ultimate tiebreak and got loose to claim the 3-2 win.

Northampton won the next five matches, including 2 tech falls and a pin to take a 22-3 lead after 6 bouts.

Carter Chlebove had a wild match with Jared Gonzalez at 152. There were 5 reversals in the 9-7 bout. Gonzalez got the final one with a minute left and was able ride out to claim the decision.

Devlin Chevere scored the Kids’ final team point with a major decision at 160 to make the score 26-13 with 3 bouts left.

Notre Dame was heavily favored at all of those weights, and they pinned out to win the dual.

“We made mistakes that you can’t make at this level. It’s things that we’ve talked about all year long. There were bouts that we could have won. Bottom line, you can’t make mistakes at this time of year and they (NDGP) didn’t,” head coach Joe Provini summarized.

Notre Dame – Green Pond 31, Northampton 26

285 - Noah Knorp (NDGP) dec. Gavin Grell (N), 3-2 UTB; 107 - Brayden Wenrich (N) dec. Cael Muller (NDGP), 11-6; 114 - Ryan Marano (N) dec. Aiden Vanicky (NDGP), 8-2; 121 - Colin Marano (N) won by tech. fall over Jacob Volpe (NDGP), 16-1 4:26; 127 - Gabriel Ballard (N) won by tech. fall over Cooper Feltmann (NDGP), 17-2 2:49; 133 - Trey Wagner (N) pinned Max Nigro (NDGP), 2:43; 139 - Tanner Berkenstock (NDGP) dec. Matthew Sommer, 8-3; 145 - Gavyn Kelton (NDGP) maj. dec. Chase Grabfelder (N), 10-2; 152 - Jared Gonzalez (NDGP) dec. Carter Chlebove, 9-7; 160 - Devlin Chevere (N) maj. dec. Stephen Bialek (NDGP), 13-3; 172 - Dominic Sumpolec (NDGP) pinned Colin Turner (N), 0:47; 189 - John Hull (NDGP) pinned Blayze Ibarra (N), 2:37; 215 - Connor Smalley (NDGP) pinned Joell Small (N), 0:19