It's been a long time since Freedom had sniffed a victory over Northampton on the wrestling mats, but on Monday night, that all changed.

The Patriots stormed out to a 23-0 lead and never looked back en route to a 44-22 win over the K-Kids.

Pates' head coach Brandon Hall could not remember the last time the Freedom program had beaten Northampton, but the general consensus was 1976.

After both teams have traded barbs on the mat over the past five years during Hall's tenure, the satisfaction of defeating Northampton was evident Monday night.

"My son ran over to me after the match and said 'hey dad, this is a big deal right,'" said Hall. "I think that pretty much sums it up. This is my fifth year here and it's been one of my goals. They [Northampton] had a couple guys out of their lineup, but our guys really looked forward to this match."

Monday's rout helped Freedom improve to 7-0 on the season, the best start in Hall's tenure, and part of it is due to senior 182-pounder Jake Young being back on the mats.

Young was on the fence about joining the team this season because of injury concerns, but he got things started against Northampton with an opening bout fall over David Rehrig in 1:09.

Freedom followed with a pin by Evan Callahan (195), a technical fall by John Callahan (220) and a pin by Josh Newhart (HWT) to build their 23-0 advantage.

Logan Ninos (106) and Dan Moran (113) got Northampton on the board with a decision and a major decision respectively to make it 23-7, but the Kids were just overmatched on the night, especially without the likes of Michael Scheetz and Jason Kocher in the lineup.

"We were without a couple guys and it forced us to bump guys from 132 on up and when you're forced to do that, things can go the other way and that's what happened," said Northampton head coach Seth Lisa. "I'm not going to make any excuses for our guys. Freedom is a good team. Our dual meets the past few seasons have been very competitive and they just wrestled better."

The Pates look to continue their impressive start to the season when they host Emmaus tonight before taking on Central Catholic on Saturday and Dieruff next Monday.

Freedom could very well be undefeated heading into the holiday tournament at Liberty, which is something that the Pates hope for heading into the week of Christmas.

"We always knew we could do well this year and things have just come together for us so far," said Hall. "There's a lot of good friends on this team and they're pushing each other in the room every day.

"This is the way it's supposed to be as a wrestling team. You train hard every day and you go out and expect to win on the mats. That's what teams like Nazareth, Easton and Beca have done. That's something we've tried to instill with these guys and it's paying off."