#4 Easton (10-0; third at Top Hat, third at Bethlehem Hurricane Classic) at #1 Bethlehem Catholic (5th at Beast of the East, 24th at Ironman)
One of the premier dual meets remaining in the regular season takes place Wednesday night when Easton travels to Bethlehem Catholic to take on the top ranked team in the state. Easton is in the midst of a resurgent year under fourth year head coach Jody Karam, who has nearly built back the program from the tumult and turmoil since Steve Powell’s retirement in 2016. In his first team meeting after getting hired, he told the freshmen that they would be (reigning state champ) Nazareth by the time they were seniors – they took care of that in a big way with a 39-19 win in December. They’ll have their crack at Bethlehem Catholic tonight, which is the second major checkpoint on their way back to the program’s heights. After last sesaon’s dual, Karam said to the Express-Times, “We knew we weren’t going to beat that team tonight. But we are going to beat that team, and we’re going to beat that team soon.” Here’s their shot.
Bethlehem Catholic is the two-time defending state duals champion and has won 35 straight dual meets, though that figure is misleading since they entered their JV team in the abbreviated 2021 state duals during the COVID season, with their starters they’ve won 40 straight since a State Duals semifinal loss to Waynesburg in 2020. Since moving up to 3A in 2015, Bethlehem Catholic has won five state dual titles, and have ten titles since the program’s resurgence in 2009. Their only teams to beat them in duals since moving up are Nazareth, Waynesburg, Franklin Regional, Wyoming Seminary, Blair Academy, Malvern Prep, Lake Highland Prep (FL), and Liberty (coached by current Easton head coach Jody Karam). The Red Rovers last beat the Golden Hawks in 2011.
Wednesday’s dual is expected to be decided by a razor thin margin. Make no mistake, this is a very good Bethlehem Catholic team (5th at Beast of the East tells us that). Despite two of the nation’s best wrestlers in Kollin Rath and Keanu Dillard, they are not as deep as previous iterations of the Golden Hawks. The retirement of longtime head coach Jeff Karam and a controversial (at least in some Becahi circles) hire of Mike Cole as the new head coach caused a wave of transfer – the Hawks lost current nationally ranked wrestlers Nate Desmond (2x state champ) and Jake Dailey (2x state medalist) to Wyoming Seminary and state qualifier Auggie Warke back to Schuylkill Haven. Their freshman and sophomore classes are also unusually light – Keanu Dillard is the only sophomore on the roster and his brother Reef is the lone “high impact” freshman who came in this season. They’re still really good – their junior class, even without Desmond, is excellent and provides a backbone that can compete with anybody in the state. But this is not the Godzilla team like you saw last season, where they set a scoring record at states with three champs and seven medals amongst their 10 qualifiers.
Easton is now in year four with Jody Karam (Jeff’s brother), the hall of famer and longtime boss at Liberty, and are starting to show the hallmarks of a Jody Karam program. Jody is as good as anybody at turning an average kid into a good kid, and you see that reflected in the quality of depth Easton has in its lineup. Kids like Quentin Hammerstone, James Geiger, and Shae Linegar, have gone from .500ish wrestlers to legitimate threats to qualify for individual states. And, this might be the first year in a decade where an athlete from the Easton feeder programs isn’t a state medalist at Bethlehem Catholic, Notre Dame, or both. Easton’s ability to hang on to lower weights Nick Salamone and Noah Fenner, both of whom were long tied to the Catholic school powers in the Valley, shows the potential Karam’s program can have if they hang onto their best kids - and with a wave coming in the junior high program right now, we may see that potential very soon. One of the criticisms of Jody at Liberty was the lack of elite kids, he only had one state champ in 20 years, but Liberty also has never had the resources and feeders that Easton does, so he hasn’t had the same access to talent that he does now. Fenner certainly looks the part of a star through his first month of varsity competition, and that will be the trend to watch is Easton is going to get back to being nationally ranked. But a win over Bethlehem Catholic would be a big start.
One of the premier dual meets remaining in the regular season takes place Wednesday night when Easton travels to Bethlehem Catholic to take on the top ranked team in the state. Easton is in the midst of a resurgent year under fourth year head coach Jody Karam, who has nearly built back the program from the tumult and turmoil since Steve Powell’s retirement in 2016. In his first team meeting after getting hired, he told the freshmen that they would be (reigning state champ) Nazareth by the time they were seniors – they took care of that in a big way with a 39-19 win in December. They’ll have their crack at Bethlehem Catholic tonight, which is the second major checkpoint on their way back to the program’s heights. After last sesaon’s dual, Karam said to the Express-Times, “We knew we weren’t going to beat that team tonight. But we are going to beat that team, and we’re going to beat that team soon.” Here’s their shot.
Bethlehem Catholic is the two-time defending state duals champion and has won 35 straight dual meets, though that figure is misleading since they entered their JV team in the abbreviated 2021 state duals during the COVID season, with their starters they’ve won 40 straight since a State Duals semifinal loss to Waynesburg in 2020. Since moving up to 3A in 2015, Bethlehem Catholic has won five state dual titles, and have ten titles since the program’s resurgence in 2009. Their only teams to beat them in duals since moving up are Nazareth, Waynesburg, Franklin Regional, Wyoming Seminary, Blair Academy, Malvern Prep, Lake Highland Prep (FL), and Liberty (coached by current Easton head coach Jody Karam). The Red Rovers last beat the Golden Hawks in 2011.
Wednesday’s dual is expected to be decided by a razor thin margin. Make no mistake, this is a very good Bethlehem Catholic team (5th at Beast of the East tells us that). Despite two of the nation’s best wrestlers in Kollin Rath and Keanu Dillard, they are not as deep as previous iterations of the Golden Hawks. The retirement of longtime head coach Jeff Karam and a controversial (at least in some Becahi circles) hire of Mike Cole as the new head coach caused a wave of transfer – the Hawks lost current nationally ranked wrestlers Nate Desmond (2x state champ) and Jake Dailey (2x state medalist) to Wyoming Seminary and state qualifier Auggie Warke back to Schuylkill Haven. Their freshman and sophomore classes are also unusually light – Keanu Dillard is the only sophomore on the roster and his brother Reef is the lone “high impact” freshman who came in this season. They’re still really good – their junior class, even without Desmond, is excellent and provides a backbone that can compete with anybody in the state. But this is not the Godzilla team like you saw last season, where they set a scoring record at states with three champs and seven medals amongst their 10 qualifiers.
Easton is now in year four with Jody Karam (Jeff’s brother), the hall of famer and longtime boss at Liberty, and are starting to show the hallmarks of a Jody Karam program. Jody is as good as anybody at turning an average kid into a good kid, and you see that reflected in the quality of depth Easton has in its lineup. Kids like Quentin Hammerstone, James Geiger, and Shae Linegar, have gone from .500ish wrestlers to legitimate threats to qualify for individual states. And, this might be the first year in a decade where an athlete from the Easton feeder programs isn’t a state medalist at Bethlehem Catholic, Notre Dame, or both. Easton’s ability to hang on to lower weights Nick Salamone and Noah Fenner, both of whom were long tied to the Catholic school powers in the Valley, shows the potential Karam’s program can have if they hang onto their best kids - and with a wave coming in the junior high program right now, we may see that potential very soon. One of the criticisms of Jody at Liberty was the lack of elite kids, he only had one state champ in 20 years, but Liberty also has never had the resources and feeders that Easton does, so he hasn’t had the same access to talent that he does now. Fenner certainly looks the part of a star through his first month of varsity competition, and that will be the trend to watch is Easton is going to get back to being nationally ranked. But a win over Bethlehem Catholic would be a big start.
