BETHLEHEM It was just what Pleasant Valley wrestling coach Justin Micklos had hoped for coming into the District 11 3A wrestling tournament Friday night at Liberty's Memorial Gymnasium. The Bears advanced three wrestlers to this morning's semifinals and still have the bulk of their lineup alive heading into day two of action.

Brody Keefe (170), Trent Thomas (195) and Ahmad Curtis (HWT) all won their quarterfinal bouts and will keep their dream alive of finding a spot in the district finals this afternoon.Keefe turned a 3-2 lead in the third period into a fall in 5:24 over Pocono Mountain East's Nick Price, who suffered an injury during the third period of the bout and was still be tendered to after the match was over.Trent Thomas squeaked his way past East Stroudsburg South's Kevin Alpaugh 3-2, scoring a takedown near the edge of the circle with 44 seconds left in the third period for the deciding winner."I faced him [Alpaugh] a few times before and I knew what he had and I knew what I had to do to get the win," Thomas said. "Going into the semis, I'm just going to wrestle hard because you never know what's going to happen."Curtis defeated Parkland's Jahan Worth 3-1 with a third period takedown to move to round out the Bears semifinalists.For all three aforementioned Bears, it will be their first trip this deep in the tournament and Micklos is happy with what he saw on Friday night."I have confidence in all three of these guys to do well in the semis," Micklos said. "We came here wanting to move five to regionals and we're in pretty good shape right now. Having three wrestlers in the semis is huge for us, it's huge for Pleasant Valley."As far as the semifinals are concerned, Keefe will take on Southern Lehigh's Matt Mirth, who again, is the top-seed. Thomas gets the same scenario with Thomas Alcaro of Emmaus, while Curtis, who is the second-seed, takes on third-seeded Kyle Gildner of Liberty.Pleasant Valley had six total wrestlers reach the quarterfinals Friday night, but three of them bounced to Saturday's second round of consolations. James Gehr (106) lost to Liberty's Luke Werner by fall in 1:55 and Jason Jacobi (120) rounded out the lightweights with a 5-0 defeat to Bethlehem Catholic's Jake Riegel, the top-seed in the weight class.Garrett Gouger was stuck with top-seeded Mikey Labriola of Becahi as well, losing by a 14-2 major decision."You know Jacobi wrestled the best guy at that weight and kept it within five points," Micklos said. "That was all heart. He's improved a lot from last year and should be able to get to the medal rounds. Even the guys that lost, they all wrestled hard and that's all you can ask for. We hope to have a big day tomorrow [Saturday] too."Due to the pending snow storm today, the consolation finals and finals have been moved up to late afternoon.Consolation finals will kickoff at 3:30 pm on six mats with the finals to follow at 4:45 pm.Medals for all weight classes will be presented at the completion of all weights this year.