With the dual-meet season winding down, the Trojans hosted Emmaus last week in a Eastern Pennsylvania Conference wrestling match.

Parkland took advantage of a couple Emmaus forfeits in a 34-24 win over the Hornets last Wednesday in Orefield.

“The goal is always to go out and puts points on the board,” said Parkland head coach Ryan Nunamaker. “We got off to a good start. We knew we had to win those matches early. I knew the strength of their line up would be in the middle there. They scored their points and their kids were aggressive. Our senior leadership took over again and put us in position to close out this match.”

Parkland grabbed a quick lead. The match started at 113 with Bryan Diaz pinning Emmaus’ James Bowie in just over a minute.

Decision wins by Mason Lansenderfer (120), Blake Shalbert (126) and Kale Cummings (132) earned Parkland a 15-0 lead after four bouts, but Emmaus came back in the middle weights.

Emmaus’ Jake Alcaro pinned Mason Trauger in 55 seconds at 138 to get his team on the scoreboard. Chris Tigar (145) and Tyler Corpora (152) earned decisions over Collin Watson and KJ Vrablik to get to pull Emmaus within 15-12.

Vrablik denied bonus points to one of the Hornets’ top wrestlers.

“We were happy the way he battled,” said Nunamaker. “He got behind early, but then he showed some grit and toughness and kept some points off the board.

“That’s the way you win dual meets. You have to be able to slow their guys down and your good guys have to be able to score points and you have to win some toss ups in there.”

Hornet freshman Caden Wright put his team ahead 18-15 when he pinned David Polanki at 160. Emmaus’ Jared Skibinski made it 21-15 with a 10-5 win over Adam Lizak at 170.

But Emmaus forfeited the next two bouts with Frank Guida (182) and Ethan Moscat (195) winning unopposed and Parkland taking a 27-21 leadi nto the final three bouts.

The Trojans’ Alex Van Woert (220) picked up a 7-0 decision win and Nathan Feyrer earned a 10-2 major decision at 285.

“As a team we wrestled pretty well. Our lighter weights came in and wrestled good,” said Feyrer. “Our middle weights still seem to be struggling, but the heavyweights can come back and get the wins we need.”

Emmaus’ sophomore Peyton Brown finished off the match with a 9-3 decision over freshman Lucas Kern.

Parkland improved to 8-4 with the win and was 10th in the District 11 Class 3A rankings as of Monday, Jan. 24. The top 12 teams make in district duals.

“We’re a young team, but personally I think our guys are learning. We’re struggling as you can see by the rankings,” said Feyrer. “But we’re going to go to EPCs, we’re going to go to districts, we’re going to wrestle teams like Easton and Nazareth, and we’re going to put points on the board. We need to have kids learn how to win and not just wrestle not to lose.”

The Trojans, which are fourth place in the EPC’s Division A, will compete in Saturday’s league crossover matches, where they’ll face the fourth place team from Division B.

They also have a nonleague match at Phillipsburg Thursday, which should help prepare them for the postseason.

“At this point you’re still looking for improvement,” said Nunamaker. “We have to get better in some areas we’re working on. If we can continue to do that then we can continue to compete with some of the better teams.”