If the opening weekend of the wrestling season means anything for Freedom, it shows the Patriots will put in the work to continually improve this season.

The Patriots jumped out to a 5-0 start on the season with an undefeated march through the Battle at Bethlehem Duals at Freedom.

The Pates knocked off Southern Lehigh (59-15), St. Joe’s Prep (66-6), Neshaminy (46-23), Abington Heights (54-18) en route to topping Honesdale 60-12 in the final.

It was a weekend where Freedom dominated and one where they improved

“We wrestled well as a whole,” said head coach Dante Terenzio. “Coming away with a tournament title to open the season is a good feeling. Our confidence is up, but we understand the level of competition becomes greater toward the end of the month and beyond.”

Freedom now enters another packed week of action, starting with a road trip to Pocono Mountain West on Wednesday, followed by a home match on Friday against Laurel. They then hit the road Saturday to Tonawanda for the Dandy Mini Mart Duals.

“I’m looking for improvements in many aspects: conditioning, better set-ups on our feet, and more aggression on top,” Terenzio said. “I’m not saying we aren’t up to par in those areas, but there is definitely room for improvement. The understanding of getting better and constant improvement is vital at this point. The kids are open to constructive criticism, which is extremely important.”

Liberty finished 4-1 at the Boyertown Duals last weekend, grabbing wins over Garnet Valley (33-28), Harry Truman (66-11), Governor Mifflin (39-35) and Interboro (45-33).

Their lone loss came to Owen J. Roberts in a 40-36 setback.

The win over Interboro secured third place for the Hurricanes in Brandon Hall’s debut as head coach with the team.

“I think our lack experience was clear this past weekend, which is evident by the amount of bonus we gave up,” said Hall. “But I also think our strong leadership and believe in ourselves and each other was also clearly on display this past weekend.”

The Hurricanes open up the regular season with a tall task this Wednesday against Bethlehem Catholic before heading out to the Penn Manor tournament this weekend.

As far as Wednesday’s bout, Hall expects the team to stand up to the Hawks.

“We expect to compete,” Hall said. “We want to be physical with no back-down and no quit for the entire dual over 14 matches. The team score will be less important to this staff as we will look at each individual match. We understand what we have right now but we still have an expectation of how we compete, no matter who the opponent is.”

Becahi did not wrestle last weekend and open the season against Liberty tonight. They then head to nationally prestigious Walsh Jesuit Ironman Tournament this weekend.