The Whitehall wrestling team found themselves in a tight grip when they traveled to Northampton to face the Kids on Monday night.

The Konkrete Kids racked up bonus points in eight bouts, paving the way for the 65-4 victory over the Zephyrs.

The match began with a promising start as Dez Boykin dominated Northampton’s Shaun Miller at 185, earning an 11-2 major decision.

With the Zephs ahead 4-0, their upper weights took the stage. After surrendering a fall at 195, Izak Bright and Ed Confer were locked in a tight match at 220. Bright was aggressive early, trying to get in on a single leg, but the first period ended 0-0. It remained that way through the second as Bright failed to escape Confer’s ride. In the third, Confer reversed Bright to go up 2-0, but Bright quickly escaped to cut the lead to one. However, Bright couldn’t find an opening to secure the winning takedown and lost the narrow 2-1 decision.

It was almost the same blueprint when Julio Diaz took the mat against Hunter Werkheiser at 285. The bout was scoreless after the first period, but in the second, Diaz gave up a reversal to Werkheiser to fall behind, 2-0. He quickly erased that deficit by peeling the hands and escaping. Trailing by one, Diaz couldn’t execute the decisive takedown in the last three minutes and lost by the identical 2-1 score.

Once the lightweights hit the mat for the Konkrete Kids, the bonus points began to stack up. They had seven consecutive falls, albeit a technical one at 120 to take a commanding lead.

They halted their pin parade with a gutty performance at 152 by Luis Arzola who lost 9-3 to Cole Kleppinger. John Kaintz also lost be decision, getting bested 7-2 by Chance Wandler at 160.

Head coach Tim Cunningham said that it’s another step in their maturation process.

“Northampton’s a solid team, and we went out and wrestled to the best of our ability,” said Cunningham. “I still think that there’s some mistakes that we made that we practice on a daily basis.”

Some of those mistakes included mat awareness and mat sense, knowing what to do in certain situations.

Cunningham had hoped they would have wrestled a little better against their Eastern Pennsylvania Conference rivals, but looked forward to rebounding when they face Emmaus before the EPC Championships.

Cunningham said that it comes down to the little things that can turn a match from a loss into a win. That knowledge comes with experience which Northampton has up and down their lineup.

He said that they’ll get back to work, making sure they improve on a daily basis.

“We’re still hoping that we have a month and a half or so to get them ready for the postseason,” said Cunningham. “Some of these matches will come down to three or four points, and we’re hoping to get three or four points better.”

Their lone win came in the first bout as Boykin showed why he’ll be a formidable opponent once the postseason hits. He controlled the match from the opening whistle, nearly turning Miller flat at the end of the third period.

Boykin has now wrestled in eight matches this season, and the senior said that he’s becoming more comfortable.

“At first it was a little hard since I’m new to this sport, my first year, but I think I’m starting to get the hang of it,” said Boykin.

Boykin said that his major decision over Miller was a good fight as the Kid gave him a good battle. Boykin said that he hit Miller with a cement job, and then tried to press that into a headlock for a pin.

Boykin, who set numerous Whitehall receiving records on the football field, admits that wrestling is “way harder.” He said that he has a lot of admiration for his fellow wrestlers.

“I have a lot of respect for these wrestlers now that I’m doing this sport,” said Boykin. “The workouts for conditioning is absolutely crazy, and I feel like football helped me a little bit with the transition, but the workouts and conditioning are crazy.”

Boykin works out with Ali Barlkey in the practice room in preparation for each upcoming meet. Barkley, like Boykin, is a powerful wrestler who only lacks experience.

“We both give each other a good fight at practice ever day so that’s only making us better,” said Boykin.