{"id":77712,"date":"2026-01-04T18:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T18:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/77712\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T18:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T18:56:09","slug":"becahi-wrestling-gets-4-straight-pins-to-knock-off-notre-dame-green-pond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/77712\/","title":{"rendered":"Becahi wrestling gets 4 straight pins to knock off Notre Dame-Green Pond"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bethlehem Catholic wrestling team<\/a>\u2019s latest win over Notre Dame-Green Pond<\/a> may have been the most chaotic.<\/p>\n

The Golden Hawks needed five falls, including a set of four consecutive pins from 121 to 139 pounds, and some savvy wrestling from its upperweights to hang on to the victory.<\/p>\n

Bethlehem Catholic beat the Crusaders 37-27 Saturday night at Notre Dame.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did my job, needed to get the pin for the team and we ended up coming out with the win today,\u201d said Bethlehem Catholic sophomore A.J. Gomez, who won by fall at 127. \u201cWe were the big underdog but we all did our job.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Golden Hawks have now beaten Notre Dame seven straight times since the two programs began meeting each almost winter starting in the 2019-20 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the yelling, I love the pressure,\u201d Becahi sophomore Nico Emili said of the atmosphere at Notre Dame\u2019s packed gym. \u201cYou get all the \u2018Oohs and ahs,\u2019 when you score, the crowd goes crazy\u2026 This gym, with how close the bleachers are to the mat, you feel everyone there. You can almost feel them breathing on you. I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Golden Hawks (3-1) led 30-16 with four bouts to go and put Notre Dame (4-1) in pin-out-to-win territory when junior Mason Thomas took sophomore Cole Retos down three times in a 13-3 major decision at 172.<\/p>\n

Senior Dominic Sumpolec (189) gave the Crusaders a jolt when he pinned junior Zach Papcsy in 1:21.<\/p>\n

Senior Connor Smalley (215) continued to pursue takedowns against Becahi junior James Bozzi but never came that close to the pin Notre Dame needed in a 21-4 tech fall in 5:53.<\/p>\n

\u201cJames Bozzi, it was like a little kid wrestling a neanderthal. Smalley is a big boy,\u201d Bethlehem Catholic coach Mike Cole said of Bozzi, who weighed in 24 pounds less than Smalley. \u201cIt was fabulous to see James do his job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if Smalley had secured the fall, junior Connor Gillahan capped the win for the Golden Hawks with a 2-1 victory at heavyweight courtesy of a reversal in the third period.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know when you wrestle Bethlehem Catholic, you\u2019re going to have to be on your A Plus game and we were not really close to that tonight,\u201d Notre Dame coach Matt Veres said. \u201cTake a loss, you learn from it. As frustrating as it is, you have to get back in the room and find ways to get better. Hopefully we\u2019ll see them in the end of January, team districts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Becahi trailed 9-0 after the opening two bouts. <\/p>\n

Freshman Michael Nicosia successfully avoided being turned by fellow freshman Max Quarry in an 11-0 win for the Crusaders\u2019 highly touted 107-pounder. At 114, Cael Muller clinched a 16-1 tech fall halfway through the third period when he was eventually awarded a fourth and final takedown.<\/p>\n

Then came four-straight falls for the Golden Hawks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say the most important thing is Mikey Nicosia and Gino Bozzi not getting pinned,\u201d Cole said. \u201cThose kids were outmanned and they went out there and they toughed it out. That was huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emili was denied an opening takedown after a lengthy scramble with freshman Cole Schwartz at the end of the first period of their bout at 121. Schwartz looked in control on top in the second, but Emili quickly reversed Schwartz to his back for a fall in 3:38.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I caught him in that scramble, I felt that he was prone on his back,\u201d Emili said. \u201cSo I knew I would be able to catch him there later in the match. It\u2019s all about staying patient and retaining information that you gather in a match.\u201d<\/p>\n

Becahi sophomore A.J. Gomez worked a fall out of a similarly low-scoring, slow-tempo bout when he hit a single leg takedown and locked Notre Dame freshman Trey Neith up in a cradle shortly after for a fall in 4:58.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis week, in practice, that\u2019s all I was working on. Sweep, shelf and straight to the cradle,\u201d Gomez said. It was right there, open opportunity, went for it. I knew I was going to get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Emili, freshman Jack Cole earned a reversal-to-a-fall in his bout at 133 against fellow freshman Mason Roncolato. At 139, sophomore Andre Cerrato locked freshman Tyler Coad in a headlock at the edge of the mat and secured the fall in 3:46 to extend the Golden Hawks\u2019 lead to 24-9 after six bouts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t watch the matches but I do pay attention to the score, momentum shifts,\u201d Emili said of Becahi\u2019s string of pins. \u201cI knew, after they took the momentum on their side after the first two matches, I knew I had to take it right back to our side and kick start it for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou make one mistake against a good wrestler from Becahi, they\u2019ll clamp you,\u201d Veres said. \u201cSome of those guys just put a pace on some of our guys and wore them down and they pinned them. Five guys getting pinned, you go to any match like that, it\u2019s gonna be tough to come back and win.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Crusaders got a win they desperately needed at 145, albeit in controversial fashion.<\/p>\n

A five-point move put Notre Dame senior Gavyn Kelton up 6-1 over junior Reef Dillard. Dillard cut the deficit to 7-3 with a reversal with 40 seconds left in the third before a second stall call on Kelton made it 7-4.<\/p>\n

As the final seconds ticked down, Dillard went for an upper body takedown at the edge of the mat and had Kelton on his back. With the gym erupting with noise, referee Larry Deiter could not hear the final buzzer go off. After a lengthy discussion at the scorers table, the takedown was waved off and Kelton won 7-4.<\/p>\n

Becahi senior Keanu Dillard delivered an expected pin at 152 before senior Jared Gonzalez earned a 9-0 major at 160.<\/p>\n

The Golden Hawks are set to host Freedom 7 p.m. Wednesday. The Crusaders travel to national prep power Wyoming Seminary 7 p.m. Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bethlehem Catholic wrestling team\u2019s latest win over Notre Dame-Green Pond may have been the most chaotic. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":{"0":"post-77712","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77712","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=77712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}