Bethlehem Catholic’s Scanlan knocks off top seed

4 Golden Hawks advance to quarterfinals

NEWARK, Del. — It was not a stellar debut to the Mike Cole era at Bethlehem Catholic at last weekend’s Walsh Jesuit Ironman.

But, first, perspective: It is the nation’s toughest in-season tournament. There is no hiding.

It gave Cole a great teaching opportunity for the week leading up to this weekend’s Beast of the East at the University of Delaware.

“Last week didn’t go like we wanted for anyone of us,” junior Charlie Scanlan said. “The thing that was emphasized this week was that we had to pull the trigger. We had to be more aggressive on our feet.”

Scanlan pulled the trigger in the nick of time to beat St. Peter Prep (N.J.) returning state qualifier Max Nevlin in the 157-pound round of 16 Saturday at the Bob Carpenter Center. The Golden Hawk used a double-leg takedown in the final 10 seconds to beat the top seed 3-1.

It was one of several offensive moves Scanlan has been working on to keep opponents from locking in on his underhook.

“It wasn’t that we couldn’t do it last week,” Scanlan said of the Golden Hawks’ lack of offensive aggressiveness. “We just had to put our minds to it and drilling it for a whole week and learned from out mistakes last week.”

Scanlan is joined by Bethlehem Catholic teammates Keanu Dillard (120), Shane McFillin (144) and returning champion Kollin Rath (150) in Sunday morning’s quarterfinals. Rath registered three technical falls on Saturday to advance. McFillin beat Northampton’s Austin Noe in the round of 16.

Nazareth’s Tahir Parkins beat Bethlehem Catholic’s Marco Frinzi 6-1 at 138 to reach the quarterfinals for a second year in a row. It was in last year’s quarters when Parkins suffered a knee injury that cost him a chunk of his sophomore season.

Blue Eagles teammates Brayden

Zuercher (175) and Sean Kinney (285) also reached the quarterfinals, as did Notre Dame-Green Pond’s Ayden Smith (113) and Dominic Sumpolec (165).

Zuercher’s confidence is rebounding after a tough start to the season at the Cumberland Valley Kickoff Classic and a home dualmeet loss to Easton. His offense is big part of it, including a pin of St. Peter Prep (N.J.) No. 9 seed Anthony Verdi in 4:47 in the round of 16.

“All my matches before were on the low-scoring side because I was not getting to my offense,” Zuercher said. “Once I’ve been getting to my offense, it’s definitely has been easier to score points.

“Honestly, I feel like my confidence has been growing which has made a big difference.”

Quakertown’s standout trio of Mason Ziegler (120), Collin Gaj (150) and Calvin Lachman (285) also reached the final eight in the Panthers’ return to the event after years away.

Faith Christian has nine quarterfinalists alone: Joey Bachmann (106), Kole Davidheiser (113), Mason Wagner (138), Chase Hontz (150), Max Stein (157), Nick Singer (165), Adam Waters (175), Cody Wagner (190) and Mark Effendian (285).

Top seed and national No. 1 Bachmann gave up a takedown midway through the first period to take by one. He rebounded just fine to win by technical fall, 23-8, at 106.

Notes

Faith Christian is still without Gauge Botero and Cael Weidemoyer. Notre

Dame-GP still does not have Joey LaPenna. Nazareth did not have Cade Campbell. … Carolina Hattala (190) and Peyton Fries (235) won inaugural Beast of the East girls titles on Friday. … Saucon Valley’s Carter Chunko thought he had a takedown near the edge of the mat in the final 45 seconds of his 106-pound round of 16 bout, but it was not awarded. He couldn’t get it again and lost 3-2 to Gilman School’s Liam McGettigan.