Dave Crowell. It is hard to underestimate the impact the veteran Nazareth coach has on his athletes. Every Blue Eagle wrestlers steps on the mat believing they have an advantage because Crowell is their coach. To a man, they tell reporters that “they just do what Coach Crowell says” to enjoy success. Crowell’s skills in inspiring confidence and belief are nonpareil, but two other things to consider: 1) his ability to prepare his wrestlers physically for the postseason is wizard-like; remember they defeated Bethlehem Catholic amidst a team-wide weight descent, no small thing; and 2) Crowell and his incomparable staff (Adam Colombo, Joe Provini, Derek Deutsch, Zach Horan, Steve Klass, Nic Sevi) are the best at juggling lineups to extract maximum points Saturday night’s brilliant moves show, again. Nobody does it better. 

Aggressiveness. Time and again it was Nazareth with direct, going-forward wrestling that the Blue Eagles’ technique turned into takedowns and more. Nazareth didn’t come close to stalling, and seemed to be the attacker in most bouts. Meanwhile, Becahi, outside of senior standouts Mikey Labriola (170) and Niko Camacho (285), seemed tentative going forward and often unable to generate points on the attack. That was illustrated by Becahi scoring zero bonus points outside of Labriola and Camacho. This may be related to ..

Conditioning. Nazareth won third periods and, therefore, won bouts. “I think being aggressive definity helped us,” said Blue Eagle 182/195-pound senior Travis Stefanik, “but I think our conditioning maybe was better. In the third period I thought they gassed out.” Indeed, Nazareth did own the third period – usually Becahi does – and big third periods played parts in Blue Eagle wins at 220, 106, 113 (where Sean Pierson rode Kenny Herrmann, ranked No. 1 by lehighvalleylive, for the entire period to win 1-0), 132 (huge third-period fall from Ian Pulli), 160, 182, and 195. It’s a very different match without Nazareth painting the third periods blue. “We’re out there running every morning,” Pulli said. “This is the hardest-working group of guys I have ever seen, up and down the lineup.” It showed Saturday. 

Losing well. It’s not always how you win, as Nazareth showed. It’s how you lose. For example, at 126, Blue Eagle senior Trevor Tarsi declined Becahi’s Ryan Anderson’s invitation for a hair-on-fire, fly-all-over bout, wrestled within himself and held the nationally-ranked Anderson to a 3-2 decision. Connor Herceg fought hard to keep Jarred Papcsy to a 4-0 decision at 138 in a spot where the Golden Hawks desperately needed bonus points. Matches like that denied Becahi momentum and kept the match under control.

Winning the coin flip. Yes, it made a difference, especially in the 195/220-range where Nazareth wanted Stefanik on Jody Crouse and got what they wanted. It wasn’t the whole story, and against a Nazareth team that wrestled as well as it did it may Becahi may well have been beated without winning the flip. But it did help, as in …

That old ‘Big Mo’. Starting at 220 turned out to a major benefit. It allowed Nazareth to get that matchup it wanted between Stefanik and Crouse, and, even better, turned into a match-long boost when Tucker Klump won 8-5 at 220. Klump’s victory set a fire Becahi could never put out. “Tucker is so much a better wrestler every day,” Crowell said. 

Psychology. Because Nazareth didn’t use Stefanik at 220, it was as if Crowell had a trump card in his back pocket to play when necessary at the end, or, to use a different metaphor, the unhittable 100-mile-an-hour relief pitcher. That boosted the Blue Eagles knowing Stefanik was there, and worked in reverse too; any Becahi advance was checked, mentally, when the Golden Hawks looked over and saw Stefanik calmly joggling, looming over the proceedings. They knew Becahi had to ahead when Stefanik took the mat – but instead they trailed. Over.

Crowd support. Anywhere outside of its own gym Bethlehem Catholic never wrestles in front of a particularly supportive crowd, to be sure, but it seemed Saturday as if all District 11 was in the Freedom gym cheering for Nazareth. The Blue Eagles drew visible support from the fans, and while some Becahi veterans such as Camacho and Labriola could have 100,000 fans cursing their name and be unaffected, the partisan crowd had to make an impact on some of the Hawks’ less experienced wrestlers.

Confidence. As Pulli said, “I think the difference between this week and last week (a 40-20 Becahi win in the EPC final) is that we believed in ourselves a lot more. Last week, we were a little unsure of ourselves. This week, we felt good about ourselves.” That may have been the reason Nazareth wrestled with such aplomb on offense.

Physical strength. Not for the first time this season it seemed as if Becahi was outmuscled by an elite opponent. Again excepting Labriola and Camacho, Nazareth seemed stronger almost across the board, and their strength told on top and in third periods. The Blue Eagles took every bit of advantage they could.

Fickle finger of injuries. This pointed towards Becahi. The Golden Hawks weighed in Mikey Lewis at 138, but he didn’t wrestle all day and had he been available Jeff Karam certainly would have used him. Freshman Cole Handlovic at 126 is out for the season and Anderson (120-126) is not 100 percent. There are teams Bethlehem Catholic wrestles where that stuff doesn’t matter, but it did Saturday. And Nazareth was pretty close to 100 percent, especially with …

Andrew Cerniglia back. Rarely does the reappearance of a freshman after six weeks of injury make such an enormous difference, but the Blue Eagle frosh seemed to lift his entire team. “It helps a lot to have Andrew back and we feel great to have him,” said Pulli of Cerniglia who posted a technical fall at 106, representing an eight-point swing from the EPC loss (40-20) to Becahi last weel. “He had such a great day for his first day back.” If at his best, Cerniglia looks capable of a top-3 finish at states – and maybe more. He’s that good.

One word. Clutch. That's what Nazareth was when it mattered, all night.

Brad Wilson may be reached at bwilson@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @bradwsports. Find Lehigh Valley high school sports on Facebook.

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