Wrestling: Blue Eagles Claw Hornets

Emmaus wrestling coach Jeff Arbushites wanted his team to see how a title-contending team executes on the mat. That is exactly what the Hornets witnessed, losing to defending Lehigh Valley Interscholastic Athletic Conference champion Nazareth Blue Eagles 61-7 on Dec. 15.

Nazareth dominated the night's event, winning all but two of the official matches and picking up its first victory of the season against a conference opponent.

The Blue Eagles were led by seniors Zach Horan and Ian Mutch, who came from behind in the final seconds of the heavyweight bout. In the second event of the night, Mutch scored two take downs in the final seconds of the final period to beat Emmaus High's Stephen Graeffe 6-4. The effort of the two heavyweights worked the crowd into a fever pitch, and the Blue Eagles' victory set the tone for the rest of the event.

"I knew that if I got him tired eventually I could take him down late," Mutch said.

"To take down the guy in the last 30 seconds, that was really impressive," Nazareth coach Dave Crowell said. " We saw a lot of improvement in everybody. As long as you are improving you are going in the right direction."

Horan also thought he and his teammates made strides from their competition this past weekend-- the Nazareth invitational, which the Blue Eagles won.  The three-time state finalist defeated a scrappy Gordon Daichendt by fall at the 3:24 mark of their match at 130 pounds. Horan said he is not putting extremely high expectations on his team or himself this early in the season.

"I'm trying not to worry about that much pressure until the end of the year," Horan said.

For Arbushites and his Hornets, it was a tough learning experience.

"We needed to see what championship tempo looked like and we got to first hand tonight," he said.

Editor's Note: This story has been revised.  Ian Mutch's name was spelled incorrectly in an earlier version of this story.  It has now been corrected.