BETHLEHEM — It was not the way the first night of the District 11 Class 3A wrestling tournament was supposed to go for Pleasant Valley, but the Bears hope they can keep a pulse in Saturday’s day two of action to keep their wrestling room alive this season.

The Bears advanced four wrestlers to Saturday’s action, led by Alex Womack (160) finding himself in the consolation following an 18-2 technical fall defeat in 4:56 to second-seeded Connor Herceg of Nazareth in the quarterfinals.

Herceg took control of the match from the get-go, building a 10-2 lead after the first period following a takedown and two three-point tilts to push himself towards a tech fall.

PV head coach Justin Micklos knew that it would be more of picking their poison against Herceg and unfortunately, they got bit with big moves early to cement the status of the match.

“Kids of that caliber have a lot in their arsenal, so we had to pick and choose what we can defend against and sometimes you can’t get to all of it,” he said. “One thing I’ll give Alex is that he didn’t quit. He battled to the end and that’s what we expect of him the rest of the tournament.”

Womack started his day with an 11-5 decision over Southern Lehigh’s Nicholas DeNave and now finds himself in the second round of consolations against Chris Tigar of Emmaus.

The top five wrestlers in each weight class advance to next week’s regional tournament and Womack would need three wins in the consolation bracket to guarantee himself another week in his season.

The Bears entered the tournament with 11 wrestlers in competition led by their upper weight trio of Womack, Chris Frable (182) and Anthony Mazzella (195) with the best shots at moving onto regionals.

Unfortunately, they took a shot before the tournament began when Frable was forced out because of a skin disease.

Mazzella then saw his chances of reaching the quarters slip away during a 3-1 loss to Bethlehem Catholic’s Jarius Rosado.

He then was gifted a forfeit in the consolation round over Blue Mountain’s Dawson Schaeffer to keep him moving forward.

Everett Lata (106) is the only other Bear to survive day one action, earning a fall over Dieruff’s Eric Rodriguez in 45 seconds during the consolation round to keep hope alive.

Gavin Dorn (170) salvaged his season with an 11-2 major decision over East Stroudsburg South’s Gary Welge in Friday’s consolation round, but now faces the task of taking on Northampton’s Traisach Roland in the second round of consolations.

“I obviously wanted to see a better performance from our guys, but I’m proud of the guys that pushed through [to Saturday],” said Micklos. “Now they just have to wrestle their best to stay alive and advance to regionals.”

Saturday’s action starts at 9 a.m. with the second round of consolations getting underway, followed by semifinals at 10:30 a.m.

The third and fifth place matches are slated for 4 p.m., followed by the finals at 5 p.m.