There are always a series of ups and downs over the course of a wrestling season and Northampton had a continued ride on their roller coaster over the weekend. The K-Kids had their hands full last Saturday during a 51-17 defeat to Phillipsburg to leave head coach Seth Lisa scratching his head about his team's performance.

The loss came after a week where the Kids had three wrestlers in the tournament finals of the Hurricane Holiday Wrestling Classic and had the program feeling good.

Then the drubbing by P'burg brought them back down to reality as they headed into last night's bout against Freedom (past Press deadlines).

"Yes I was disappointed," said Lisa about the P'burg match. "I knew going in they were a very good team but the fact that they pinned so many of our guys is very disappointing. We need to have more fight if we are going to win matches."

The Stateliners pinned a staggering seven Northampton wrestlers in 10 of their wins from last week's bout. Following a major decision from Bobby Fehr at 170, P'burg reeled off four straight falls from 182-HWT.

"Our team showed a lot of progress at the holiday tournament," Lisa said. "P'burg was a step back and now we need to get back on track. Every match from here on out is going to be important if we plan on making it to district duals."

The Kids (1-2, 1-1) took that approach against Freedom (7-1, 2-0) last night, where the Patriots were looking to make their own bit of history.

"I don't think we've beaten Northampton since the pre-Don Rohn era," said Freedom head coach Brandon Hall, whose guesses its been close to three decades since the Pates have knocked off Northampton. "They have some studs in their lineup, but if we want to win some of these matches against top teams, we can't give up four or five pins and expect to win."

The Kids edged the Pates 32-27 last year and Hall downplayed the opportunity that his program has in front of them about beating Northampton.

"I hope we can get five or six kids that can get bonus points for us," said Hall. "We need bonus points if we're going to win this match. It's definitely going to be the difference in the match if we can get bonus and minimize how much bonus we give up. All the kids know this is a big match for us, but we can't make this any bigger than it already is."

Lisa reiterated the notion of the importance of bonus points as well, especially with that fresh in the mind of his team following their display against P'burg.

"The match against Freedom is going to come down to the wire," he said. "It's going to be about getting bonus points and minimizing damage. Hard wrestling and guys staying of off their backs is going to be important."