FOUNTIAN SPRINGS – North Schuylkill is awakening the memories of yesteryear.

The wrestling program has suddenly found a bit of its tradition from the 1970s, 80s and early 90s.

Those Spartans ruled the roost on the mats. This year’s edition - although not the dominant program that decades ago regularly produced champions and championships - is making wrestling fun again.

Thursday night North Schuylkill roared past Lehighton in the District 11 quarterfinals at Joe Cesari/Lafay Hope Gymnasium. The Spartans claimed wins in nine of 13 bouts, recording eight pins in the process, as they cruised to a 51-15 win over Lehighton.

Lehighton had reached the quarterfinals with a 41-27 elimination bout victory over Palmerton just minutes before taking on North Schuylkill.

Lehighton-No. Schuylkill

Just a few days ago, Lehighton gave North Schuylkill all it could handle before dropping a 36-32 decision.

But this time around, it was all North Schuylkill.

After the teams split the first four bouts, the third-seeded Spartans started to dominate, winning six of the next seven bouts - five of them on pins.

“We’re good when we want to be,” said North Schuylkill head coach Chis Fetteroff - a former standout wrestler for the Spartans during their glory days. “Hey, Lehighton really came after us up at their place, so we wanted to get off to a good start and set the tone.”

On the other hand, Lehighton coach Floyd Brown was envisioning another tight bout, and hoping his team could find a way to pull it out this time.

“North Schuylkill just wrestled better tonight,” Brown said. “We certainly didn’t wrestle our best. It started out okay with the win at heavyweight, but after that ...”

Brown dismissed the idea that having to wrestle Palmerton before taking on the Spartans hurt his team.

“Not really,” Brown said when asked if the back-to-back bouts played a role in the outcome. “Sometimes it’s like warming up. It can be to your advantage, but it wasn’t for us tonight. North Schuylkill did a great job.”

The Lehighton highlights included a pin from Lucas Ferguson at 145 and decisions from Deven Armbuster (189), Aiden Gruber (120) and Ricky Houser (285).

But even the losses in those four bouts, weren’t all negatives for the Spartans.

Fetterolf thought that Neekol Caraballo’s ability to hold Houser to a 9-6 decision in the opening match of the night was a good start for his team.

“The other night, Houser pinned Caraballo, so I thought limiting Lehighton to just three points in that bout was a big key for us,” said Fetterolf. “I think our kids realized that and we just built on it the rest of the night.”

Palmerton-Lehighton

The opener went according to form as the sixth-seeded Indians defeated the 11th-seeded Bombers.

Lehighton motored to a quick 27-0 lead, making it an uphill battle for Palmerton.

The Indians built their lead when Gauge Hartney opened the match by pinning Matt Garey-Hendricks in 1:54 at 215. Two straight forfeits followed, before Ethan Nothstein tech falled Keillen Trotter (16-1) at 106. Gruber then picked up a decision over Josh Merkel Schuylkill just wrestled better tonight,” Brown said. “We certainly didn’t wrestle our best.”

Brown dismissed the idea that having to wrestle Palmerton before taking on the Spartans hurt his team.

“Not really,” Brown said when asked if the back-to-back bouts played a role in the outcome. “Sometimes it’s like warming up. It can be to your advantage, but it wasn’t for us tonight. North Schuylkill did a great job.”

The Lehighton highlights included a pin from Lucas Ferguson at 145 and decisions from Deven Armbuster (189), Aiden Gruber (120) and Ricky Houser (285).

Palmerton-Lehighton

The opener went according to form as the sixth-seeded Indians defeated the 11th-seeded Bombers.

Lehighton motored to a quick 27-0 lead, making it an uphill battle for Palmerton.

The Indians built their lead when Gauge Hartney opened the match by pinning Matt Garey-Hendricks in 1:54 at 215. Two straight forfeits followed, before Ethan Nothstein tech falled Keillen Trotter (16-1) at 106. Gruber then picked up a decision over Josh Merkel at 120.

The Bombers got pins from Dillon Lombardi, Dennis Lombardi, Dan Lucykanish and Jeremy Mooney during the match, but the early hole was too much to overcome..

Lukas Ferguson and Brok Solt added pins for the Indians.

“We knew coming in that the two forfeits were going to happen,” said Palmerton coach Justin Peters. “There were a couple of swing bouts that we knew we had to come up for us to have a chance, but they didn’t go our way.”

LOOKING AHEAD ... Lehighton’s win against Palmerton guaranteed the Indians a trip to Freedom on Saturday, when the duals resume. Now in the consolation round, Lehighton will face Tamaqua at 9 a.m.

First Round

Lehighton 41, Palmerton 27

215 - Gauge Hartney (L) pinned Matt Garey-Hendricks in 1:54; 285 - Ricky Houser (L) won by forfeit; 106 - Jacob Hall (L) won by forfeit; 113 - Ethan Nothstein (L) tech. fall Kellen Trotter, 16-1 at 2:57; 120 - Aiden Gruber (L) dec. Josh Merkel, 6-1; 126 - Dillon Lombardi (P) pinned Reese Scaturro in :54; 132 - Derek King (P) dec. Nicholas Zeigenfuss, 5-3 (SV); 138 - Jacob Ferguson (L) dec. Caleb Gaffney, 9-5; 145 - Lukas Ferguson (L) pinned Jameson Trainer in :30; 152 - Dennis Lombardi (P) pinned Ethan Buchert in 1:01; 160 - Daniel Lucykanish (P) pinned Griffin Traylor in 1:02; 172 - Jeremy Mooney (P) pinned Nolan Stein in 3:41; 189

- Brock Solt (L) pinned Colyn Mertz in 2:51.

Quarterfinals

North Schuylkill 51, Lehighton 15

285 - Ricky Houser (L) dec. Neekoli Caraballo, 9-6; 106 - Noah Gilgore (NS) pinned Ethan Nothstein in 1:16; 113 - Kaden Casey (NS) pinned Jacob Hall in :44; 120 - Aiden Gruber (L) dec. Tyler Slotterback, 8-1; 126 - Nate Sterner (NS) pinned Reese Scaturro in :56; 132 - Zander McElhenny (NS) dec. Nicholas Zeigenfuss, 4-2; 138 - James Weikel (NS) pinned Jacob Ferguson in 2:28; 145 - Lukas Ferguson (L) pinned Brayden Kessler in 4:49; 152 - Pat Cooney (NS) pinned Corbin Barachie in 3:43; 160 - Ricky Halford (NS) pinned Ethan Buchert in 1:26; 172 - Dawson Kleeman (NS) pinned Griffin Traylor in 2:35; 189 - Deven Armbruster (L) dec. Trevor Minalda, 5-2; 215

- Jared Tinari (NS) pinned Gauge Hartney in 1:39.