Lisle head coach John Davis was expecting a better effort then he got during Monday's 53-21 varsity and 75-6 junior varsity losses to West Chicago.
Davis did not like the fact his varsity wrestlers were pinned six times during the year's opening meet.
"We have to improve quite a bit," Davis said. "We got pinned more than I thought we would today. That's not good. We gave up a lot of extra points on pins. Those kids we were against were a little physical with us. We've got to get a little physical ourselves.
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Lisle varsity members Brian Czyl (130), Scott Sheahan (140) and Greg Osborn (160) won their respective matches; Tyler Young (119) won by forfeit.
Teammates A.J. Pascente (103), Ryan Kilroy (112), Brad Blechschmidt (125), Justin Andrzejewski (135), Justin Spangler (145), Anthony Szymczak (152), Cam Castellanos (171) , Denzel Floyd (189) and Keith Wanger (215) all struggled as they came up short for the Lions (0-1).
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The Wildcats varsity (1-0) had Tyler Svestka (103), Jesus Duran (112), Robert Guillen (135), Jesse Short (145), Tommy Krone (152), Dan King (171), Erick Severiano (189) and Guillermo Galvan (215) win their matches.
The Lions (0-1) lost their first two matches before Young won by forfeit because West Chicago did not have a wrestler to face him.
Czyl bested Wildcat Franky Correa in three rounds while Andrzejewski fell to Guillen in his match.
Sheahan, a senior, had the toughest match of the night against West Chicago's Alex Martell. In the first two rounds, Martell had the edge, but Sheahan got a point in the last seconds of the third to force overtime.
In seconds, Sheahan did a take down in the sudden death round to beat Martell 7-5. Sheahan said all he was thinking about was fighting through it and coming back from behind.
"Even if you are down, you have to have the will to win," he said. "He got a really good take down on me and I just kind of did what I usually do in backing up and run around him."
Spangler was defeated by Short via pin and Szymczak lost a tough three rounder to Krone to make it 29-15 Wildcats.
Osbourn, a junior, had a drawn out match with West Chicago's Jon Clark. Wrestling at 152 pounds last season, Osbourn bulked up to 160 and said he had to rely on his skills to beat a big opponent.
"He was really strong, so I knew I had to try to get something he messes up on," Osborn said. "I was down and I believe he was trying to get me into a guillotine or a ball-n-chain and he didn't fully have my arm, so I took my arm out and flipped over and got him."
Osborn's win pulled the score to 29-21, but West Chicago won its last three matches to clinch the meet.
On the junior varsity side, Andrew Bartol was the lone Lisle victor, winning a three-round match by pin.
Sheahan said Lisle has a young team that needs grow very quickly to be ready for regionals and sectionals come February.
Osborn said he wants to go to state because he worked so hard over the summer to wrestle at a high level.
Davis said Blechschmidt, Sheahan and injured wrestlers Brandon Wolak and Terrence Allen are athletes to watch out for this season.
The Lions' next challenge, which is against Walther Lutheran and Hampshire, started at 5:30 p.m. today at Hampshire.
