Huskies turn in solid effort vs. Lyons Township

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Updated: February 20, 2012 8:22AM

Win or lose, Oak Park-River Forest loves to wrestle against Lyons Township.

The host Huskies kicked off this year’s showdown in dominant fashion and never looked back on Thursday, building a 31-0 lead and winning the night’s first seven matches over the visiting Lions.

Unbeaten senior Sam Brooks (22-0) posted his 14th pin of the season with a win at 182 pounds, during the opening win streak, as OPRF earned a 9-5 edge in matches won en route to a 42-21 win.

The victory improved the Huskies’ record to 4-0 in West Suburban Conference Silver Division duals this year, and a perfect 14-0 overall for the season.

“It’s always fun to beat LT and I’m just sad this is the last time I get to wrestle against them,” Brooks said. “And we haven’t had all of our guys in the lineup but we’ll be ready by the end of the year.”

Brooks was a freshman on the Huskies’ state-title team of 2009 and while this year’s team might well match that team in overall talent, the senior would like to see improvement in one key area.

“This team works hard but that team worked so hard in practice, every single day,” Brooks said. “They kept it at a high level.”

Colin Rogers (22-5 at 145) kicked things off for OPRF with a technical fall win at 145 pounds, starting the Huskies’ seven-match win streak.

“There’s momentum in this sport and as soon as our team gets going, we’re not going to stop,” Rogers said. “We have a big rivalry with LT and we did what we needed to do against them.”

Davonte Mahomes (25-1 at 152) followed with a technical fall win before teammate Michael Woulfe (26-7) gutted out a 3-0 decision over LT’s Jack Pearson at 160 pounds.

Pins from Joe Ariola (23-4) at 170 and Brooks kept OPRF rolling, Jamal Bovell (12-5) and Emonte Logan (13-11) won decisions at 195 and 220, before heavyweight Adam Rodgers stopped LT’s skid with a hard-fought 4-2 decision over Marq Brumant.

The Lions’ Christ Letsinger won a major decision at 106 and teammate Carter Beebe won by decision at 126 pounds.

The marquee barnburner of the night came next, with OPRF’s Cameron Harris and LT’s AJ Villareal tied 7-7 after two periods of their match at 132 pounds.

Harris escaped to start the third period to take an 8-7 lead, but Villareal scored off a Harris shot and then won by fall with less than 10 seconds left in the match. LT’s Conor Condon ended the night with a tech fall win at 138 pounds.