Logan Roth had been in similar situations before and didn\u2019t get the desired outcomes.<\/p>\n
Chase DeCesare had been a varsity wrestling spectator until Wednesday, so he certainly had no positive experiences in pressure situations to draw from.<\/p>\n
The duo were all that stood between Emmaus knocking on the door of EPC, District 11 and PIAA Class 3A royalty and busting it down.<\/p>\n
In his varsity debut, DeCesare, in his second year wrestling, won a wild 13-12 bout at 215 pounds and Roth got a pin in the final bout at 285 to secure Emmaus\u2019 31-21 victory over four-time defending PIAA 3A champion Bethlehem Catholic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe asked the kids tonight, \u2018Don\u2019t worry about the scoreboard,\u2019\u201d Green Hornets coach Jim Best said, \u201c\u2018Don\u2019t worry about the outcome. Just compete hard.\u2019 I felt like that\u2019s what we saw from 107 right up to heavyweight. We went out, win or lose, and competed hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the kind of mentality we want to keep going with this program.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roth, a three-year starter, played the role of good teammate until right before DeCesare clinched his match against Bethlehem Catholic\u2019s James Bozzi. Best was happy to see that, but wanted his senior to be focused on his task \u2014 wrestle smart and aggressively \u2026 and stay off his back.<\/p>\n
The 285-pounder delivered against Golden Hawks senior first-year wrestler Grant Mulhern, who missed all of last season with an injury.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t start out well for Roth. Mulhern got a takedown with 35 seconds left in the first period. But Roth stayed focused while on bottom against Mulhern who had a 36-pound weight advantage.<\/p>\n
When Roth got a reversal, he worked like a veteran on top by applying pressure and waiting the opening to turn Mulhern.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m proud of my coaches for teaching me everything they have,\u201d Roth said. \u201cWhat I was doing out there, what I\u2019ve been practicing the last five, six months, it\u2019s their dedication to this team. I just did everything they taught me. I can\u2019t take any credit for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
DeCesare led Bozzi 6-1 early, then fell in a 10-8 hole going into the third period. But the junior kept battling and used his 31-pound weight advantage to wear down Bozzi. His takedown with 36 seconds left was the difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were a lot of nerves wrestling my first match,\u201d DeCesare said. \u201cI was just trying to wrestle a smart match, get a win for my team. I woke up thinking about the match. I was walking around school thinking about it. I felt pretty good actually when I got on the mat.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I had what it took to win the match. It was everything I practiced for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emmaus 31, Bethlehem Catholic 21<\/p>\n
107: Cam Martinez (E) tech. fall Michael Nicosia, 17-1, 4:58<\/p>\n
114: Talan Springer (E) tech. fall Guiseppe Bozzi, 21-4, 4:28<\/p>\n
121: Nico Emili (BC) dec. Levi Max, 7-2<\/p>\n
127: Teagan Caciolo (E) dec. A.J. Gomez, 8-5<\/p>\n
133: Emilio Albanese (E) dec. Reef Dillard, 7-2<\/p>\n
139: Andre Cerrato (BC) pinned Jackson Max, 3:18<\/p>\n
145: Keanu Dillard (BC) tech. fall. Tommy Fallstich, 22-6, 5:26<\/p>\n
152: Jaden Santiago (BC) maj. dec. Ayden Bayard, 10-2<\/p>\n
160: Xyler Sallit (E) dec. Mason Thomas, 4-3 TB-2<\/p>\n
172: Logan Armstrong (E) dec. Zach Papcsy, 4-3<\/p>\n
189: Connor Gillahan (BC) dec. Xayden Sallit, 1-0<\/p>\n
215: Chase DeCesare (E) dec. James Bozzi, 13-12<\/p>\n
285: Logan Roth (E) pinned Grant Mulhern, 3:38<\/p>\n
Referee: Greg Geiger<\/p>\n
Senior writer Tom Housenick can be reached at thousenick@mcall.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Logan Roth had been in similar situations before and didn\u2019t get the desired outcomes. Chase DeCesare had been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,305,25331,726,432],"class_list":["post-51725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-high-school-sports","tag-high-school-wrestling","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}