As a coach, when your team outscores three opponents in a quad by a combined score of 175-25, it’s hard to find much fault in that performance.
Not that Sandburg coach Eric Siebert didn’t give it a try Saturday after his Eagles scored a 53-10 win over Lyons, a 60-3 win over Batavia and a 62-12 win over host Naperville North.
“Overall, we wrestled pretty well,” Siebert said. “But we can always do better, and that’s how your brain works when you’re a coach. So I’m already thinking about Monday’s practice and what we need to do to get better.”
Three-match winners sat everywhere on the Eagles’ bench as they polished off North in improving to 9-0 in duals.
Lyons figured to provide Sandburg its best competition but after losing the opening match at 285 pounds, the Eagles won 10 of the next 11 bouts to bury the Lions.
“We’re pretty solid,” Siebert said. “There aren’t many holes in our lineup so we present a challenge to most teams in duals for sure.”
Sandburg got pins from Louie Hayes (106), Christian Robertson (138), Ben Schneider (145), and Patrick Brucki (182) against Lyons, and Rudy Yates (126) was dominant in winning by tech fall over Zach Villarreal.
John Prieto also earned a 9-8 come-from-behind win over Johnny Mologousis on a takedown with three seconds left in their match at 152.
“(Mologousis) had a good single and I didn’t expect that setup. He’s a good kid,” Prieto said. “I kind of just caught him on a switch and just built off that.”
Siebert was pleased with Prieto, who is in his first year as a varsity wrestler.
“Obviously, he went into that match as an underdog. Mologousis is a state qualifier,” Siebert said. “But I told John that I thought he could battle him, and he stayed in it. He did what we preach – to keep plugging because you never know how things can unfold. It’s a great win for him.”
With Hayes, Yates, Brucki, Ben Schneider (145), and Tom Slattery (160) helping to pile up bonus points, the Eagles were untouchable in Naperville.
Slattery was one of only two seniors in Sandburg’s lineup and after winning by tech fall over Naperville North’s Dalton Weber, he talked about keeping the bar set high for the perennial state power.
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“Me and Matt Frostman (285) are the only two seniors but we have a lot of young talent, and you don’t have to be too vocal with them because they already know their jobs,” Slattery said. “Our coaches just expect us to create the atmosphere during practice for the younger guys to get after it.”