Experience helps Downers North pin a loss on Leyden
After failing to finish off the close matches last weekend against Conant and Jacobs, Chris McGrath knew exactly what he and his Downers Grove North coaching staff would address in the wrestling room Monday morning.
Apparently, the message got through.
The Trojans (17-4-0) won all five of their close bouts with host Leyden on Thursday night in Franklin Park, including thrilling back-to-back 11-10 decisions to defeat the Eagles 45-18 and spoil Leyden's senior night at Farina Fieldhouse.
"This a hard-working, great bunch of kids we have on this varsity team, but we did not do a very good job last Saturday," said McGrath, whose team meets Proviso West on Friday in a regular-season finale. "So we went back to work on just that, and we got ourselves a pretty good result here tonight."
"You saw the difference between being young, and being wrestling-young tonight," said Leyden coach John Kading. "We have a terrific young group of guys with us, but most of them came to us with little or no experience.
"They have had a lot of catching up to do this season, but they've bought into our system, have worked extremely hard and have made great strides. Now it's our job to use the next two weeks to get them ready for regionals here at our place."
The night began brightly for Leyden, which opened with impressive major decision victories by Alex Solano at 120 (19-8) and freshman Daniel Uribe (11-1).
The Solano-Uribe triumphs were two of the three majors the Eagles got, with sophomore Traymon Thomas (195) unloading a monster throw and pin at 1:07 to slow a five-match win streak by North. That result pulled Leyden within 27-18.
"We lost every close match that we were involved in, most near or at the very end of the match," said Kading. "Again, it's our youth showing through in those tight ones."
Freshmen Jimmy Lonigro conceded a hard-fought 3-1 decision to Jack Casey at 145, and after Austin Maher (152) and Joe Rungus (160) added 12 points to the Trojans' cause, the home crowd was treated to a couple of wild six-minute contests.
A flurry of activity marked the closing moments of the Kote Matsomoto/Erik Aguilar - which began at 4-4 heading into the third period. Each wrestler took the lead briefly, and confusion reigned as to what the actual final score was.
After a long discussion, the referee raise the hand of Matsomoto, who was just as surprised as the crowd as North's 170-pounder claimed an 11-10 victory.
It was deja vu all over again when DGN's Tavian Thompson and Leyden's Anthony Aguilar followed the previous match almost to a tee. This time, in the final 20 seconds of regulation, more confusion and an escape, penalty points for a stall and then a takedown had Thompson take an 11-10 win.
"Tonight is kind of the way things have gone for us this year," said Leyden senior Shane Dziadosz, who improved to 23-9 after a superb effort at 138 in his 14-3 major decision. "But it's been great to see our new guys improve each time out, and still fighting right until the very end - it means a bright future for Leyden wrestling."
Dziadosz, a three-year starter, lost his state-qualifying match last year at the Conant sectional yet finished with 33 wins while competing at 113 pounds.
"That loss stayed with me for awhile, and it provided me with a lot of motivation to work as hard as I could in the off-season to get ready for this time of the year," he said.