WHITEHALL Panther Valley head coach Tim Robb had one goal in mind as his team took the mat in the opening round of the District 11 Class 2A Team Duals at Whitehall High School on Thursday night: advance to Saturday's round.

Robb got his wish when the Panthers handed Palisades a 36-30 setback in the first match of the evening.Despite a 59-18 loss to Saucon Valley in the nightcap, the Panthers move on to Saturday's consolation round at Freedom and will wrestle Northwestern Lehigh at 9 a.m."We knew we had to get through that first match," Robb said. "We didn't match up well with Saucon Valley. I think we wrestled a little bit afraid."In the long run, we accomplished what we wanted to. We get to come back and try to wrestle through the loser's bracket on Saturday."The Panthers jumped on the Pirates early and built a commanding lead.Rian Shubeck (285) was the first on the mat and pinned Wyatt Schilling in 30 seconds.After the Pirates tied it with a fall at 106, the Panthers ran off five straight wins with Mike Lazar, Tanner Kennedy, Darren Goida, Hunter Kennedy and Ali Capobianco to go in front 33-6.Grant Lorkowski sealed the deal with a 7-3 decision at 170.Against the Colonial League champion Saucon Valley team, Panther Valley got falls from Capobianco, Dylan Moyer and a forfeit win by Shubeck for its scoring."Our kids wrestled well," Robb added. "It's hard to pick anybody out."In the first match, I put a freshman (Xander Kern) out against a returning district finalist (Christian Gretzinger) and he lost 3-2."The same with Zach Glassic. He went out against a kid who was supposed to handle him and he loses by four points."We lost two matches late and that's things that we have to work on, but we're getting there. The is still a fairly young team. I'm not disappointed with the effort and I'm happy we're moving on."