Sometimes with Northampton wrestling, it is easy to get so focused on their performance against elite teams like Nazareth and Bethlehem Catholic that you lose sight of just how much better they are than an average team.

The K-Kids showed that last Friday night as they demolished a middle of the pack Liberty squad 55-9. The Hurricanes came into the match at 7-3, just outside the top 8 that would qualify for district duals.

Liberty’s strength is in the lighter weights, but Northampton took the first three bouts to set the tone for the evening.

“It was two nice wins to start the dual meet,” explained head coach Joe Provini. “Their -7 and -14 pounder are pretty tough and starting that off with Ben (Schoeneberger) and Cade (Strauss) getting wins was nice. Brayden (Wenrich) wrestled a great match.”

Even though the Kids got out to a 10-0 start in the team score, the Hurricanes responded with a pin and a decision to narrow the gap to 10-9.

When Jose Rodriguez hit a 7-point move a minute into the match at 139, it looked like Northampton might actually fall behind. Matthew Sommer battled back through the deficit and a bloody nose. He worked for a last-second escape in the first period and buzzer-beating takedown to end the second to get within 7-6 heading to the final period.

From there he scored a takedown and eventually finished off the bout with a pin in 5:18.

“That’s one of the things we talk about all the time – in the postseason, things happen. You get thrown to your back for 7 in the first period, you’ve got to be mentally prepared to come fighting back. And Matthew did that tonight.”

That win sparked a cascade of bonus points as the K-Kids won the rest of the matches by either pin or tech fall.

Northampton has a fairly uninspiring dual meet schedule to close out the regular season with contests against PM West, West Scranton, and Allen. Kids’ fans can safely turn their attention to thinking about district duals next Saturday.

The top eight teams in the power ranking qualify for the district tournament, but a committee seeds those schools in a meeting that will occur Thursday, January 29.

Based on the limited number of head-to-head matches between the top teams, it seems likely that the top three seeds will be Nazareth, Emmaus, and Bethlehem Catholic, in that order. That leaves the K-Kids staring at a spot in the 4 vs 5 quarterfinal and a possible matchup against Notre Dame GP.

Northampton 55 Liberty 9

107 – Ben Schoeneberger (N) dec Max Milia (L) 3-0; 114 – Cade Strauss (N) dec Joey Miller (L) 1-0; 121 – Brayden Wenrich (N) md Elijah Heimbach (L) 12-0; 127 - J.T. Solano (L) pinned Mason Frisoli (N) in 4:25; 133 - Ben Miller (L) dec Davi Glykas (N) 4-0; 139 - Matthew Sommer (N) pinned Jose Rodriguez (L) in 5:18; 145 - Trey Wagner (N) pinned Elijah Williams (L) in 2:59; 152 - Chase Grabfelder (N) tf Ben Reid 20-3 in 3:01; 160 – Gabe Ballard (N) pinned Daniel Rivera (L) in :31; 172 - Carter Chlebove (N) tf Ethan Estojak 21-6 in 3:54; 189 – Logan Rusnock (N) tf Kaedon Hall (L) 17-2 in 3:27; 215 – Joell Small (N) pinned Anthony Martin (L); 285 – Brandon McEntire (N) pinned Jason Doughty (L) in 4:57