WARMINSTER >> Clean and precise, North Penn wrestled its way past William Tennent Wednesday night and remained perfect in the Suburban One League Continental Conference.
“It was a good win for us,” Knights coach Robert Shettsline said after the 42-30 victory on the road. “We had a couple bumps here and there but other than that, our younger guys are learning out there and it was a nice win.
“Our guys wrestled a lot better tonight than they have in the past,” said Shettsline, whose team got impressive performances out of Will Laughlin and Colin Shannon to lock up the victory. “We’re just trying to get better every match. We try to remind them of their goals — postseason and that type of thing, and we wanna strive to get every kid as far as he can and to reach his goal.”
Laughlin pinned Joe Hadlick in the first period of his match at 145 pounds, setting up the clinching points by Shannon at 152, as he won by tech fall to push the North Penn (7-5 overall, 3-0 conference) lead to 39-12.
“It was really just flowing like we do in the room, in practice,” Laughlin said of his match, “so that when situations come up during a match, you naturally know what to go to.
“Like when (Hadlick) had his arms out straight, I went for the reverse grab and that’s all it really was — getting a feel for things like it is in the room.”
Laughlin lifted his record to 16-7 on the year.
“I think I’m at where I wanna be right now. There are still a lot more matches to go before the postseason,” the senior said, “but the postseason is definitely the end goal.”
The Panthers are also grooming some nice postseason prospects, including A.J. Tamburrino and Anthony Collella, winners at 132 and 120 pounds on Wednesday.
“All together, the team’s doing very well,” said coach Anthony Tamburrino. “They practice very hard together and they’re a close group of kids. When we give up 24 points (to forfeits) and we happen to make up those points and be competitive, I’ll take that any day.”
