BETHLEHEM - It was not the type of match James Syracuse wanted to end with on Friday night at the Northeast Regional 3A tournament at Liberty’s Memorial Gymnasium.

The Pleasant Valley senior, making his first trip to regionals, was dumped in the 189-pound quarterfinals by Hazleton’s Bryce Molinaro 5-0 to push him into Saturday’s consolation round action, which kicks off at 9:30 a.m. back at Memorial Gymnasium.

Syracuse now needs to win his next three consolation round matches in order to clinch a spot in the consolation finals, which would guarantee him a trip to Hershey, as only the top four wrestlers from each class move on to the PIAA tournament.

After pinning LaSalle’s Dylan Clair in 1:30 in the round of 16, Syracuse’s momentum stalled against Molinaro.

Molinaro (34-2) used a first period takedown to control the match and added another in the third period for good measure to win comfortably.

It was only the fourth loss of the season for Syracuse (29-4) and head coach Alex Depew knew he didn’t need to overreact to his team captain falling short in the quarters to a returning state medalist.

“We just told him to keep his head up,” Depew said. “He’s got four losses this year and they’ve all been to top quality guys. Molinaro is a stud and there’s no such thing as a good loss, but he knows he needs to do better if he wants to move on.”

The shutout defeat was the first one of the season for Syracuse, who now looks to regain control of his season against Ryder Zulkowski of Archbishop Wood in Saturday’s second round consolations.

Zulkowski lost by fall in the quarters to Tunkhannock’s Frankie Scranta and is looking to rebound as well. The difference is that Syracuse’s path as a District 11 wrestler will favor him along the way in the consolation rounds.

“James is better than everyone in the wrestle backs,” said Depew. “He needs to score points. You can’t come out of a match hoping to win when you don’t score any points, but Molinaro is an experienced wrestler and was just better, but I know James will bounce back.”

After losing in the district semifinals last week by fall, Syracuse had little down time to reevaluate things before his consolation round bout en route to taking third.

This time, he has the whole night to think about how he wants to write his latest chapter of the season.

“It’s all about refocusing and staying confident,” Depew said. “We have an early morning and we have to battle through the wrestle backs to get that trip to Hershey and James is capable of that.”

Saturday’s semifinal round will get underway at 11 a.m. with the third round of consolations taking place simultaneously.

The fourth round of consolations begin at 1:30 p.m. with the championship finals and medal rounds all getting underway at 5 p.m.