HOPEWELL TWP. — While there’s no doubt the Steinert High wrestling team is on the rise, it’s also equally certain it still has a long way to go to catch up to Hopewell Valley. This point was on full display Friday night when Hopewell Valley (4-1) trounced Steinert, 52-9, in Colonial Valley Conference action. It’s true Steinert was much more competitive in many bouts against Hopewell compared to years past, but the bottom line is the Spartans won only three of them. And all three of them were hard fought regular decisions. “I’m proud of our kids; they wrestled hard,” said Steinert coach Joe Panfili, whose team came in on a bit of a roll after winning two tournaments in December. “But this was also a reality check for us and showed we still have a lot of work to do. Obviously, Hopewell is the standard bearer in our conference.” Hopewell started fast when heavyweight Elliot Scherbekow used a Peterson Roll in the first period to pin at heavyweight. Other than losing a decision to promising freshman Julian Bijaczyk (13-1) at 120, the Bulldogs then won everything up to 165 pounds. Said Jan Rahmani had a solid 13-6 win at 106, and Hopewell also got six-pointers from Dean Meissner (113) and Luke Caldwell (138) in the lower weights. Dylan Hersh (126) and Sam Lowe (132) also had solid wins for Hopewell when they beat two of Steinert’s better wrestlers in Alex Castano and Anthony Ricigliano. Steinert has a capable wrestler at 165 with Alex Hart, but he also came up short when he struggled to get out from bottom and lost to Jett Branagh, 5-1. By the time the match was over, Hopewell also got pins from Isaac Miller (144) and Jon Trainor, who put in a deep half in the second period to complete the rout at 215 pounds. A strength in the Steinert lineup is in the upper weights with Elliot Morris (175) and Anthony Giglio (190). Both won by defeating the Barker brothers, Ethan (175) and Gavin (190). Gavin Barker is only a freshman but is already plenty tough. and it’s a huge plus for any program to bring in a young upper weight with his kind of potential. As usual, Hopewell coach Mario Harpel is making sure his team will be battle-tested. The team has already competed in the Southern and Warren Hills tournaments and will be in a quad at Collingswood on Saturday. Looming near the end of the dual-match season is a match at Delaware Valley that could very well be the match that determines the No. 1 ranking in the entire area. The good news is Hopewell now has its full lineup ready to go, which wasn’t the case at Warren Hills where it was missing four frontliners. Hopewell Valley (4-1) 52 Steinert (2-1) 9 285: Elliott Scherbekow (HVH) over Aidan Constance (HES) (Fall 1:35); 106: Said Jan Rahmani (HVH) over Matthew Mottola (HES) (Dec 13-6) 113: Dean Meissner (HVH) over Jackson Rich (HES) (Fall 2:38) 120: Julian Bijaczyk (HES) over Thomas Davila (HVH) (Dec 6-2) 126: Dylan Hersh (HVH) over Alex Castano (HES) (MD 9-1) 132: Sam Lowe (HVH) over Anthony Ricigliano (HES) (Dec 9-3) 138: Luke Caldwell (HVH) over Elijah Kerlin (HES) (Fall 1:26) 144: Isaac Miller (HVH) over Zachary Jones (HES) (Fall 2:18) 150: Max Pollara (HVH) over Payton Brier (HES) (MD 10-1) 157: Konrad Haugeto (HVH) over Yazid Ahmed (HES) (TF 18-2 5:28) 165: Jett Branagh (HVH) over Alexander Hart (HES) (Dec 5-1) 175: Elliot Morris (HES) over Ethan Barker (HVH) (Dec 5-1) 190: Anthony Giglio (HES) over Gavin Barker (HVH) (Dec 7-2) 215: Jon Trainor (HVH) over Mikey Odige (HES) (Fall 2:49) OTHER MATCHES Delran 59, Bordentown/Florence 18 106: Jeremy George (DELR) over Ella Garofolo (BORE) (TF 17-2 0:00) 113: Chase Dubuque (DELR) over Gabe Kakarides (BORE) (Fall 3:09) 120: Hunter Jackson (BORE) over Bryce Kenney (DELR) (Fall 3:03) 126: Jeremy Moore (BORE) over Logan Tome (DELR) (Fall 3:03) 132: Jaxson Raynor (BORE) over Justin Scotton (DELR) (Dec 9-4) 138: Hunter Novoa (BORE) over Gabriel McNeil (DELR) (Dec 10-3) 144: Nathan Marter (DELR) over Luke Harris (BORE) (Fall 0:15) 150: Alexander Conard (DELR) over Elijah Rodriguez (BORE) (Fall 0:34) 157: Shane Palena (DELR) over Kenny Brophy (BORE) (Fall 1:02) 165: Benjamin Hoffman (DELR) over Connor Bramley (BORE) (Fall 0:41) 175: Matthew Viereck (DELR) over Jack McElmoyl (BORE) (Fall 1:22) 190: Victor Rizzo (DELR) over Carter Stumpf (BORE) (Fall 5:46) 215: Michael Viereck (DELR) over (BORE) (For.) 285: Ryan Arthur (DELR) over (BORE) (For.). Delaware Valley 48, Immaculata 22 285: Luken Alberdi (DVR) over Chase Cole (IMMA) (Fall 0:11) 106: Lucas Loffredo (IMMA) over Owen Shuey (DVR) (Fall 1:34) 113: Tristan Fawthrop (DVR) over Daniel Cabarcas (IMMA) (Dec 6-4) 120: Ryan Goldstein (IMMA) over Luacs Beyers (DVR) (MD 13-4) 126: Jaden Perez (DVR) over Derek Sutphen (IMMA) (TF 20-4 4:26) 132: Mason Tettambel (IMMA) over Tye Falkenstein (DVR) (TF 15-0 3:42) 138: Michael Hasson (DVR) over Nicholas Parisi (IMMA) (MD 12-1) 144: Nate Keller (IMMA) over Sebastian Dobak (DVR) (MD 13-2) 150: Jackson Bush (DVR) over (IMMA) (For.) 157: Luke Sinkewicz (DVR) over Ethan Weiner (IMMA) (Fall 4:22) 165: Olivier Paul (DVR) over (IMMA) (For.) 175: Nicholas Stokes (IMMA) over Jon Nalesnik (DVR) (Dec 7-2) 190: Matthew Sencher (DVR) over Jaiden Drake-Murray (IMMA) (Fall 3:46) 215: Branden Sozanski (DVR) over Armani Camejo (IMMA) (Fall 0:43) Rancocas Valley 63, Winslow 15 120: Kieran McMullen (RVR) over Kimara Johnson-White (WTE) (Fall 1:20) 126: David Craft (RVR) over (WTE) (For.) 132: Zachary Kosowski (RVR) over Noah Young (WTE) (Fall 2:20) 138: Brady Earlen (RVR) over Chase Panarello (WTE) (Fall 4:28) 144: Thiago Maldonado (RVR) over Nathan Smalls (WTE) (Fall 1:24) 150: Marquis Bates (WTE) over Dominic Blattenberger (RVR) (Fall 2:49) 157: Raymond Miller (RVR) over Luke Vigorito (WTE) (Fall 0:12) 165: Carter Robles (RVR) over Raheem Brown (WTE) (Dec 11-8) 175: Jake Bartletta (RVR) over (WTE) (For.) 190: Nakeem Powell (WTE) over Aiden Gaines (RVR) (Fall 0:43) 215: Damian Gomez (RVR) over Dominic James (WTE) (Fall 2:40) 285: Izechukwu Ugwuzor (WTE) over Alberto Sandino (RVR) (Dec 7-6) 106: Ryan Hannigan (RVR) over Christopher Steed (WTE) (Fall 1:51) 113: Luca Russo (RVR) over Aaden King (WTE) (Fall 3:43) Belvidere 72, Sourh Hunterdon 12 175: Pedro Dos Santos (BELV) over Deegan Manfready (SHR) (Fall 1:10) 190: Kyle Blew (BELV) over Parker Rampel (SHR) (Fall 3:52) 215: Yandel Rodrigues-Castagnetto (BELV) over (SHR) (For.) 285: Pedro Isaque Dos Santos (BELV) over Noah Cormier (SHR) (Fall 4:48) 106: Nina Merunka (BELV) over (SHR) (For.) 113: Riley Eve (BELV) over (SHR) (For.) 120: Eli Lora (BELV) over (SHR) (For.) 126: Ryder Penucci (BELV) over Will Murzenski (SHR) (Fall 3:36) 132: Colton Colaluce (BELV) over Mitchell Ege (SHR) (Fall 1:25) 138: Gerald Magyar (BELV) over Henry Brusca (SHR) (Fall 3:39) 144: Chace Wilkinson (BELV) over (SHR) (For.) 150: Antonio Nikolopoulos (BELV) over Quinn Thompson (SHR) (Fall 1:21) 157: Noah Legg (SHR) over Kamar Pearson (BELV) (Fall 5:10) 165: Milo Dopp (SHR) over Orion Freeze (BELV) (Fall 0:14)v Rancocas Valley 53, Paul 22 132: Mason Yost (PAVI) over Zachary Kosowski (RVR) (Fall 1:44) 138: Cameron Connelly (PAVI) over Brady Earlen (RVR) (MD 16-4) 144: Thiago Maldonado (RVR) over Anthony Dirosa (PAVI) (Fall 0:26) 150: Raymond Miller (RVR) over Jett Dean (PAVI) (Fall 2:34) 157: Kristofer Oesterle, Jr. (RVR) over Ian Gardner (PAVI) (MD 15-1) 165: Carter Robles (RVR) over Keith Clark (PAVI) (Fall 4:45) 175: Elijah Vidal (RVR) over Ryan Hee (PAVI) (Fall 1:00) 190: Jake Bartletta (RVR) over (PAVI) (For.) 215: Xavier Argueta (RVR) over Maxwell Shipp (PAVI) (Fall 1:10) 285: Anthony Jackson (PAVI) over (RVR) (For.) 106: Ryan Hannigan (RVR) over Cristian Perales (PAVI) (MD 14-5) 113: Iyon Townsend (PAVI) over Luca Russo (RVR) (Fall 1:33) 120: Alex Kinney (RVR) over Wesley Sheets (PAVI) (Fall 1:07) 126: Louis Simone (RVR) over Ian Gardner (PAVI) (Dec 15-13)