Bulldogs win CL showdown

Northern Lehigh and Northwestern Lehigh finally got a chance to wrestle a Colonial League match.

After both the Bulldogs and Tigers had their first two league matches postponed, an unusual three-team dual meet on Wednesday night in New Tripoli gave them an opportunity to finally hit the mat.

While it presented many challenges for both programs, the Bulldogs and Tigers opened the regular season with commanding victories over an undermanned Salisbury program. Northern Lehigh posted a 60-10 win while Northwestern Lehigh followed with a 62-12 win over the Falcons.

"Yeah, that was hard to do," Herzog said of waiting for the first dual meet of the season. "All of that down time. We were going to wrestle, then you're not going to go. Then we thought it was going to be on again and it got canceled.

"So, that was tough for our mind set to try and get some continuity going in our room. We're resilient. A win is a win. Sometimes they're not so pretty. But, it's early season."

While patience was the name of the game before the season officially started last night, bonus points were the name of the game in Northern Lehigh's 39-22 victory over Northwestern in the evening's finale.

"We knew going in that bonus points were going to be the difference in a win or a loss and how close it would be," Tiger head coach Jim Moll said. "They just happened to do a better job in getting them and not giving them up than we did."

That the Bulldogs did.

Ryan Martinez (103) and Colin Hedash (189) received wins virtue of defaults giving the Bulldogs six free points.

Teammates Zane Heller (125), Chris Christ (135) and Dylan Hoffman (140) then gave Northern Lehigh an extra nine points by recording pins for wins.

Just as crucial to the victory was the fact that the six Bulldogs that did suffer defeats to their Tiger opponents only surrendered a combined total of four bonus points.

Northwestern Lehigh's Dylan Long earned one additional point with a major decision over Northern Lehigh freshman Ty Hertzog. Then, the Tigers' Kyle Sorenson recorded a quick six points with a fall over Zach Flemming at 160.

Although the extra points earned definitely paid dividends for his Bulldogs, Herzog believes his program has a lot of work to do in order to to earn even more bonus points down the road.

"Obviously, bonus points were going to be crucial for us," Herzog said. "There were a lot of critical match-ups, but we still have a lot of work to do. We have a long way to go to be a good team. We have a lot of talent, but we have a lot of work to do. It's early and I understand that. We have three guys in there that don't have a lot of varsity time yet.

"But, I thought they held their own tonight and did a pretty good job. So, you can't ask for much more than that. Sometimes that's a win in itself."

Northern Lehigh 39,

Northwestern Lehigh 22

103 - Ryan Martinez (NL) won by forfeit

112 - Dylan Long (NW) major dec. Ty Herzog, 17-9

119 - Lucus Dise (NL) dec. Ethan Keichel, 9-2

125 - Zane Heller (NL) pinned Mike Hontz in 3:48

130 - Eddie Faust (NW) dec. Conner Hedash, 5-2

135 - Chris Christ (NL) pinned Brandon Miller in 3:31

140 - Dylan Hoffman (NL) pinned Dustin Badesso in 3:01

145 - Bobby Clymer (NW) dec. Nikko Steven, 4-2

152 - Craemer Hedash (NL) dec. Levi Veppert, 4-3

160 - Kyle Sorenson (NW) pinned Zach Fleming in 3:45

171 - Kyle Greenawald (NL) dec. LJ Walker, 6-3

189 - Colin Hedash (NL) won by forfeit

215 - David Tirpak (NW) dec. Dan Huemmer, 4-2

289 - Alec Eidelman (NW) dec. Brandon Loch, 3-1 in OT

Northern Lehigh 60, Salisbury 10

171 - Colin Hedash (NL) pinned Anthony Halderman in 1:32

189 - Double forfeit

215 - Dan Huemmer (NL) won by forfeit

289 - Patrick Pilon (S) dec. Brandon Loch, 4-0

103 - Anthony Dee (S) major dec. Ryan Martinez (NL), 10-1

112 - Ty Herzog (NL) won by forfeit

119 - Zane Heller (NL) won by forfeit

125 - Lucus Dise (NL) won by forfeit

130 - Conner Hedash (NL) won by forfeit

135 - Chris Christ (NL) won by forfeit

140 - Nikko Stevens (NL) pinned Ty Halderman

145 - Dylan Hoffman (NL) won by forfeit

152 - Craemer Hedash (NL) won by forfeit

160 - Trevor Moyer (S) dec. Kyle Greenawald, 9-3

Northwestern Lehigh 66,

Salisbury 12

171 - LJ Walker (NW) pinned Anthony Halderman in 3:24

189 - David Tirpak (NW) won by forfeit

215 - Double forfeit

289 - Patrick Pilon (S) pinned Alec Eidelman in 1:56

103 - Anthony Dee (S) won by forfeit

112 - Dylan Long (NW) won by forfeit

119 - Ethan Keichel (NW) won by forfeit

125 - Mike Hontz (NW) won by forfeit

130 - Eddie Faust (NW) won by forfeit

135 - Brandon Miller (NW) won by forfeit

140 - Dustin Badesso (NW) pinned. Ty Halderman in 3:24

145 - Bobby Clymer (NW) won by forfeit

152 - Levi Veppert (NW) won by forfeit

160 - Kyle Sorenson (NW) pinned Trevor Moyer in 3:55