Two Times News area wrestling teams were in action at Panther Valley High School in the District 11 duals last night.

Fifth-seeded Northwestern battled 12-seeded Williams Valley in the opening round of action. The Tigers rallied after a strong Vikings' start to defeat Williams Valley, 40-30.Northwestern earned the opportunity to square off against rival Northern Lehigh in the quarterfinal match immediately after its opening round victory.The 'Dawgs did just enough to fend off the Tigers in a match which came down to the last bout and were victorious in true thrilling fashion, 30-29.Northwestern-No. LehighAlthough Northwestern immediately had to hit the mat again to square off against the fourth seeded 'Dawgs, it didn't initially appear that engaging in back-to-back matches had any effect on the Tigers.Northwestern earned victories in five of its first seven bouts and enjoyed a 20-9 advantage midway though the match."At this point in the season, our conditioning shouldn't be an issue," said Northwestern head coach Jim Moll. "They (Northern Lehigh) beat us by nine during the regular season, and we closed the gap tonight. We know each other very well."Anthony Fillis (182) and Jacob Murray (220) both lost during our previous match (against Northern Lehigh). For them to both come back and win tonight is huge."However, Northern Lehigh showed why it earned 17 regular season wins this year, as it took five of the last seven bouts including a Nate Farber pin during the 12th bout which finally gave the 'Dawgs a 27-26 lead."We've seen them two times in less than a week," said Northern Lehigh head coach Steve Hluschak. "They're a young and talented team with great coaching. We knew we would have our hands full, but we did what we had to do."We lost a couple that we won last time, but we got some bonus points and didn't give up some, which we did last time and that was the difference."Austin Arnold came up big for the 'Dawgs in the bout immediately following the Farber pin. Arnold was able to outwrestle Andrew Sorensen and extend the Northern Lehigh lead to four points (30-26) heading into the final bout.Hluschak said of Arnold, "He's basically hobbling around on a bad ankle and hasn't practiced in two weeks, and it's huge that he came away with a win he came away with a win against a quality kid at a critical time which put less pressure on our last guy (Chad Cederburg)."Northwestern's Fillis defeated decisioned Cederburg in the final bout (182), but it wasn't enough to even up the contest. Arnold's gutsy performance in the previous bout proved to be one of the big differences in the match as the 'Dawgs clung to the one-point win."You never know how the chips are going to fall and thankfully they fell our way again tonight," Hluschak said. "Every time we wrestle them it's going to be a 50/50 match. I think that's as close as a team ability wise compared to us as you can get."We're very happy with the outcome and we're lucky to get out of here with a win for sure. Our kids wrestled great, hats off to them and our coaching staff. We're going to get back to work tomorrow and hopefully carry this over to Saturday."Williams Vy.-NorthwesternIn the opening round against Williams Valley, it took Northwestern a few bouts to get into a rhythm.The Vikings' won three of the first four bouts by fall and enjoyed a somewhat surprising 18-3 early advantage. Kailin Hoffman, Ian Minnich, and JJ Cox all of Williams Valley contributed to the early lead by earning wins by fall.Northwestern eventually returned to form and ripped off six straight victorious during the middle of the match, which propelled them to the victory over the Vikings.