When Northampton welcomed Bethlehem Catholic for an EPC dual meet on Wednesday night, the Konkrete Kids had reasonable optimism they could knock off the perennial state powerhouse for the first time in 15 years.<\/p>\n
That optimism turned to excitement on multiple occasions as Gabe Ballard\u2019s pin, following an exhilarating pin by Chase Grabfelder and a terrific win for Carter Chlebove, gave Northampton a 15-0 early lead. Another electrifying pin for Brandon McEntire at 285 pounds earned the Konkrete Kids massive bonus points to make it 21-10 before Ben Schoeneberger added three more points in a hard-fought win between two talented freshmen against Michael Nicosia.<\/p>\n
In the matter of less than two minutes of actual time, two more young freshmen turned the tide for the Golden Hawks, setting the stage for the far more known Dillard brothers to finish off a 38-27 win at Northampton High School.<\/p>\n
Gino Bozzi and Jack Cole won at 114 and 127 pounds, respectively, with a win by forfeit by Nico Emili sandwiched in between, to turn a 14-point deficit into a three-point lead in a matter of moments for the Golden Hawks.<\/p>\n
What made it even more impressive? Both wrestlers were making their high school debut after failing to feature in a shocking season-opening loss to Emmaus last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the room, you\u2019ve just got to keep going. You\u2019ve got to prepare yourself,\u201d Bozzi said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to have those situations where you\u2019re down, your team needs a point. You\u2019ve just got to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
A blistering start for Bozzi resulted in a seven-point throw, which looked new to his coach, that helped him introduce himself in style.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe came out strong,\u201d Becahi coach Mike Cole said. \u201cThat throw was really nice. I\u2019ve never seen him do that in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a spur of the moment decision for the freshman who knew his team needed a spark after most of the toss-up matches that the Golden Hawks needed to go their way went to Northampton early on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I needed something big, trying to help my team out,\u201d Bozzi said. \u201cHe was pushing into me, and then I felt it, and I threw him. I wanted to get the pin, but that didn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The perseverance he noted that is necessary in the wrestling room was evident after a pair of reversals cut into his deficit. His struggles on top forced him to cut Northampton junior Cade Strauss, which played to the advantage of his persistence and non-stop motor. Bozzi kept the intensity, outscoring Strauss 13-2 in the third period to secure bonus points in a technical fall victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cOff those reversals, I was just telling myself, \u2018keep pushing, keep pushing, keep going,\u2019\u201d Bozzi said. \u201cYou\u2019ve really got to fight through those mental battles to get up and just keep pushing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat a hell of a match for him. I was very, very happy for him,\u201d Cole said. \u201cHe wobbled a little bit, and I got a bit worried, but then he came back strong and teched the kid. It was awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
The debut of Cole\u2019s nephew, Jack, at 127 pounds started similarly to Bozzi\u2019s. The only difference, to Cole\u2019s dismay, was that he followed up the early takedown with a pin of Dallas Henderson in just 42 seconds.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a little quicker than I wanted,\u201d Cole said. \u201cI wanted to stay out there for awhile, but it\u2019s alright.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll eventually learn to appreciate the quick victories, but who could blame the debutant for wanting to cherish such a large moment, for himself and his team, a little longer?<\/p>\n
His coach, and uncle, was looking further ahead while still appreciating the potentially career-defining opening moments for two of the many young and promising wrestlers on his squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always try to think big picture, and the big picture is that this experience is precious,\u201d Cole said. \u201cIf things go well for them, like it did for those two young men, it\u2019s a great building block for momentum. When things don\u2019t go well though, that\u2019s just as important\u2026If we\u2019re going to have success at the end of the year, everything has to build up to the next thing, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to focus on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two of the more experienced Golden Hawks, Lehigh commits Keanu and Reef Dillard, finished the job to deliver the 15th straight victory for Bethlehem Catholic in the series.<\/p>\n
All it earned was a bit of a reprieve from Cole who is still focused on whatever it takes to get his players ready for the most important time of year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only thing it really did was give me an opportunity to give them a tiny little bit of a compliment and then kick them in the ass,\u201d Cole said. \u201cBecause, in the grand scheme of things, it\u2019s all about the end of the year and not the beginning of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Derek Bast is a freelance writer who can be found on Twitter\/X at @derek_bast and by email at derekbast11@gmail.com.<\/p>\n
Bethlehem Catholic 38, Northampton 27<\/p>\n
152: Chase Grabfelder (N) pinned Jaden Santiago, 4:57 (0-6)<\/p>\n
160: Carter Chlebove (N) dec. Mason Thomas, 7-3 (0-9)<\/p>\n
172: Gabe Ballard (N) pinned Nicholas Reyes, 1:04 (0-15)<\/p>\n
189: Zach Papcsy (BC) md. Logan Rusnock, 13-4 (4-15)<\/p>\n
215: Connor Gillahan (BC) pinned Joell Small, 3:34 (10-15)<\/p>\n
285: Brandon McEntire (N) pinned Grant Mulhearn, 3:11 (10-21)<\/p>\n
107: Ben Schoeneberger (N) dec. Michael Nicosia, 10-3 (10-24)<\/p>\n
114: Gino Bozzi (BC) tf. Cade Strauss, 21-6, 5:54 (15-24)<\/p>\n
121: Nico Emili (BC) won by forfeit (21-24)<\/p>\n
127: Jack Cole (BC) pinned Dallas Henderson, 0:42 (27-24)<\/p>\n
133: Reef Dillard (BC) pinned Davi Glykas, 3:34 (33-24)<\/p>\n
139: Keanu Dillard (BC) tf. Matthew Sommer, 20-2, 2:46 (38-24)<\/p>\n
145: Trey Wagner (N) dec. Andre Cerrato, 4-1 (38-27)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Northampton welcomed Bethlehem Catholic for an EPC dual meet on Wednesday night, the Konkrete Kids had reasonable…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,305,25331,726,432],"class_list":["post-57996","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\/57996","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=57996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}