Last year’s state wrestling dual meet finalists, Northampton and Bethlehem Catholic, squared off Saturday morning in this year’s District XI 3A semifinals. The Golden Hawks won the last five bouts, at 106 through 132, to erase a 24-17 K-Kids’ lead and advance to the final by the score of 37-24.

The match began at 138. In the first two bouts, CJ Fritz and Blaise Wagner performed admirably by holding their highly regarded opponents to a decision and tech fall and keep the early damage to 8-0.

Jagger Condomitti brought the Northampton fans to their feet with an electrifying, first period pin in 1:07 at 152 to get the K-Kids on the board.

Colby Judd surrendered a major decision at 160.

Traisach Roland had the bout of the meet at 170. He scored a takedown with 37 seconds left in regulation to force overtime. After a scoreless sudden victory period, he rode out his opponent in the first tiebreaker. He scored a reversal 8 seconds into the second tiebreaker to claim the decision. The Beca wrestler was penalized a team point for unsportsmanlike conduct and the match stood at 11-9 in favor of the Hawks.

At 182, Riley Gallagher made his return from an injury suffered on Jan. 4 to notch the second fall (in 5:44) for Northampton and give the K-Kids a 15-11 lead.

Beca got the six points back with a fall at 195.

Blake Lambert put Northampton back on top when he scored the only takedown of his 220-pound bout in the sudden victory period. Beca forfeited at 285.

Once the lineups rolled over to the lower weights, Northampton failed to record a takedown in any of the last five bouts. Carson Wagner fell 6-0, Gunnar Wagner 16-0, A.J. Dew by fall, Dagan Condomitti 4-3, and Ethan Szerencsits 7-2.

After defeating Emmaus 43-15 to qualify for the consolation final, Northampton head coach Seth Lisa shared his thoughts on the tough loss to Beca.

“It was a good dual meet,” Lisa said. “I’m sick and tired of recruits. I’m sick and tired of the rules right now and it sounds like sour grapes, but I side myself with the Chad Shirks and Jamaar Billmans when it comes to Catholics (schools) and privates recruiting kids and wrestling in team events like this.

“Nothing against the Beca program; you gotta recruit kids to have a program. Nothing against their staff. But it kind of gets tired when there’s rules and it doesn’t seem that they’re strong enough to prevent kids transferring from a program to a program. What’s the point of having a rule if it doesn’t get enforced?

“Our kids are studs. We had a 15-1 regular season. We’re gonna come back and take third place and that’s something to be proud of.”

Northampton thumped Liberty in the consolation final 56-18. The K-Kids then waited for the result of the Nazareth-Beca championship final. A loss by the Blue Eagles would have set up a match for true second place and given the Kids a chance to make back-to-back appearances in the state team tournament.

Nazareth beat the Hawks in a low-scoring affair, 31-16. The Northampton wrestlers left the gym to start preparations for the District XI 3A individual tournament which starts Feb. 21.