When Emmaus beat 4-time defending state dual meet champions Bethlehem Catholic on Dec. 3, it served notice that the competition for the District XI 3A title will be wide-open this year.

The Northampton wrestling team took their crack at the Golden Hawks last Wednesday and although they ended up on the wrong side of a 38-27 final score, the K-Kid faithful left Pete Schneider Gymnasium feeling that come February, they would be in the mix.

The reason for optimism is that Northampton was without 2025 state runner-up Brayden Wenrich in their lineup. The Kids gave up 6 team points each at 121 and 127, weights where Wenrich would be favored to win and likely score bonus points.

“Brayden suffered a serious knee injury back in October at the Super 32. The initial diagnosis was 8 to 12 weeks. He was doing everything he could to get back in the lineup. He got cleared before we started competing and we were only going to use him against Parkland and Nazareth if we had to have him to win,” explained head coach Joe Provini.

“But he’s not there yet,” Provini continued. “He wants to wrestle. He wants to be out there. I felt as his coach I had to take a bigger picture approach and think about the rest of season. The knee’s not fully healed and we’re being cautious.”

The match started perfectly for the K-Kids as falls by Chase Grabfelder and Gabe Ballard were sandwiched around a key Carter Chlebove 7-3 decision in a coin-flip bout at 160.

Heavyweight Brandon McEntire got the crowd fired up with a second period and freshman Ben Schoeneberger followed with a 10-3 decision to give Northampton a 24-10 lead with 6 bouts left in the dual.

Unfortunately for the Kids, Becahi scored bonus points in the next five matches to go up 38-24 and clinch the contest.

Trey Wagner closed the evening by making a first period takedown stand up for a 4-1 decision at 145.

Bethlehem Catholic 38,

Northampton 27

152 - Chase Grabfelder (N) pinned Jaden Santiago (BC), 4:57 (0-6); 160 - Carter Chlebove (N) dec. Mason Thomas (BC), 7-3 (0-9); 172 - Gabriel Ballard (N) pinned Nicholas Reyes (BC), 1:04 (0-15); 189 - Zach Papcsy (BC) maj. dec. Logan Rusnock (N), 13-4 (4-15); 215 - Connor Gillahan (BC) pinned Joell Small (N), 3:35 (10-15); 285 - Brandon McEntire (N) pinned Grant Mulhern (BC), 3:11 (10-21); 107 - Benjamin Schoeneberger (N) dec. Michael Nicosia (BC), 10-3 (10-24); 114 - Gino Bozzi (BC) won by tech. fall over Cade Strauss (N), 21-6 5:54 (15-24); 121 - Nico Emili (BC) won by forfeit (21-24); 127 - Jack Cole (BC) pinned Dallas Henderson (N), 0:43 (27-24); 133 - Reef Dillard (BC) pinned Davi Glykas (N), 3:34 (33-24); 139 - Keanu Dillard (BC) won by tech. fall over Matthew Sommer (N), 20-2 (38-24); 145 - Trey Wagner (N) dec. Andre Cerrato (BC), 4-1 (38-27)