Winning your first district wrestling championship is always a special moment. Beating a Bethlehem Catholic wrestler in order to do it is just icing on the cake.

That was the sentiment from Liberty’s Damen Moyer following his 3-2 decision over Becahi’s Tavion Banks during last Saturday’s District 11 3A championships at Memorial Gymnasium.

Moyer capped off the night for the Hurricanes with his title in the 182-pound bracket, as Liberty pushed nine wrestlers to this week’s Northeast regional tournament and finished third in the team standings at districts behind powerhouses Bethlehem Catholic and Nazareth.

Liberty had two wrestlers reach the finals, as Matt Maloney (113) had a chance at grabbing the ’Canes second gold of the night, but fell short by a 4-3 decision to Pottsville’s Nick Onea in Saturday’s finals.

Moyer’s moment came with a relishing amount of support from his teammates watching mat-side, as well as the Liberty faithful making plenty of noise inside their home gym.

“It feels amazing,” said Moyer. “I’ve been training all year for this and this is what I’ve wanted to all year. My dad talked me the other night about how I felt after losing districts a year ago and that was my motivation for being a district champ. I didn’t want to go through that feeling again.”

Getting through Banks was always going to be a challenge, but it was a task that was as equally gratifying as getting a gold medal around his neck.

“It definitely meant more beating a Beca kid,” Moyer said. “Out of all the teams, I’d rather win against Beca than Northampton or Easton.”

Other Hurricanes that are moving onto regionals include Eli Santiago (160, fifth); Jake Ahmad (220, fourth); Joseph Barbella (145, fifth); Josh Talijan (170, fifth); Sebastian Mateo (120, fifth); Tal-Reese Flemming (106, third) and Travis Brown (126, fifth).

Liberty head coach Jody Karam also received coach of the year honors, voted upon by his peers to cap off the night for the Hurricanes.

While there were plenty of smiles on Liberty’s side of the coin, Freedom head coach Brandon Hall was disappointed in having only two wrestlers advance to regionals.

Luis Vargas (106) and Ben Huber (145) each took fourth place to extend their season for another week, but it was a brutal consolation medal round for the Pates.

All six wrestlers they had in the medal round lost, four of which missed out on regionals by losing in the fifth place bout including Andrew Evans (138), Andrew Youwakim (152), Jared Jenkins (182) and Maximus Marrero (195).

“It’s immensely disappointing to only have two guys moving on,” said Hall, “but I will tell you one thing, the two guys that are moving on [Luis and Ben] were there all offseason. Those two didn’t miss a lift or a workout unless they were on vacation. That reinforces how important the work in the offseason is and they’re two of the hardest working kids in the room.

“It’s just tough to lose all six matches in the medal round. I thought all these guys had a shot to push through and it just didn’t happen.”