The Emmaus girls wrestling team took second place at the Parkland Winter Duals Sunday, going 2-1 with the only setback coming against unbeaten Parkland.

Emmaus beat Freedom 42-21 in its opening match before coming from a 30-0 deficit to beat Northampton 31-30 in the semifinals. Parkland took the championship match 48-21.

The semifinal match was the highlight of the day for Emmaus.

Northampton won the first six bouts before the Hornets began their comeback with Brynn Koberlein’s 9-4 win by decision. Hailey Laible and Olivya Kroope had pins during the comeback.

But it was Ariana Koberlein’s major decision that cut the deficit to 11 and had Emmaus head coach Anthony Shave on the edge of his seat.

“I was sitting there calculating it,” Shave said. “Then she throws the headlock and gets the major, now we have a chance.”

A second-period pin from Petra Perez set up a final match in which Emmaus needed at least a technical fall to tie the match.

Freshman Nitzana Jamaica didn’t settle for the tie, she pinned her opponent in the second period of the 100-pound match to seal the win for Emmaus and a trip to the title bout against Parkland.

The championship match started at 112 and Parkland won the first five matches to take a 21-0 lead before Kadence Yannotti (136), who was trailing 8-7 after one period, battled back for a 15-10 win by decision to get her team on the board.

Two bouts late Olivya Kroope (155) made it 30-9 with a first-period pin. Petra Perez (235) and Nitzana Jamaica (100) pinned their Trojan opponents in two of the last three bouts.

In the Hornets’ opening match Sunday they beat Freedom 42-21. Jamaica, Lillian Erbrick, Brynn Koberlein, Haily Laible and Petra Perez all pinned their Patriot opponents. Julianna Garcia and Ariana Koberlein won by decisions. Kroope picked up a win by forfeit.

Ariana Koberlein and Perez both went 3-0 at the tournament. Perez had three pins while Koberlein earned a quality win against Freedom’s Lexi Horvath.

“Petra Perez had a rough start to her season and won three matches by pin today,” said Shave. “That was huge.

“Ariana Koberlein got some good wins. Lexi Horvath is a good wrestler and Ari showed up and wrestled.”

The loss was just the second for Emmaus in dual meets this year.

The Hornets have one returning state qualifier in Kroope, who also went 3-0 Sunday and is now 16-0 this season.

Emmaus also has a lot of young and upcoming grapplers on this year’s team. Some have experience and others are still learning the basics. The team heads into the second half of the season at 10-2 overall with its two losses coming to unbeaten teams in Parkland and Gettysburg.

“We had two first-year wrestlers in the line up, five freshmen, it was awesome,” Shave said of his team’s performance at the Parkland Winter Duals. “We’re a relatively young team. They’re over-performing in every metric. I don’t know what I could have expected coming in. I don’t try to put expectations. I try to give them goals and they’re definitely hitting those goals.”

Emmaus hosts Nazareth Wednesday before heading to the Souderton Big Red Girls Tournament next weekend. The Hornets will get another shot at Parkland on Thursday, Jan. 22, which is two days before the East Penn Conference Championships.