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LINCOLN — The Mt. Hope High School wrestling team won its third match in as many nights, capping off a perfect week of action with a resounding 55-15 non-league victory over host Lincoln Thursday, Jan. 26.

The Huskies, who have won their last four matches total, improved their overall record to 6-6-1. The previous two nights Mt. Hope defeated Westerly, 46-24, and Cranston East, 46-27, in Division I-South contests to lift its league mark to 4-6-1. Lincoln, which is 6-5 in the II-North ranks, dropped to 6-6 overall.

“I thought both teams wrestled very well tonight,” Mt. Hope head coach Brian Latessa said after Thursday’s win. “I don’t think the final score was an indication of the level of competition.”

Latessa was correct. The Lions put up several spirited performances, though it was the Huskies who came out on top the most.

Lincoln started off well, winning the first two bouts.

Arguably the best and most exciting match of the night came in the opener at 113 pounds where the Lions’ Devin Costa and Mt. Hope’s Jose Lima went the distance and then some to settle the outcome.

The wrestlers finished six minutes of regulation tied at seven. The score remained the same through a one minute sudden death overtime period. Lima couldn’t score from the down position in the first of two 30-second double OT periods. Costa did complete an escape from the down spot and also earned a two-point take-down to finally secure a 10-7 win.

Alex D’Alosio next gave Lincoln a 6-0 lead with his 7-2 win over the Huskies’ Alan St. Vincent at 120. D’Alosio scored a take-down, a reverse and a three-point near fall while all St. Vincent could muster was two single-point escapes.

Lincoln’s lead would be short-lived, however. Mt. Hope quickly took control of the overall match with consecutive pins by Christian Torres at 126, Doug Sampson at 132 and Vaughn Byrd at 138.

Each of the Huskies was in control of his outing from the beginning. Torres needed just 1:42 to end his bout. Sampson, up 5-0 at time, put his match to bed early in the second period at 2:31. Byrd built a quite sizable 13-2 lead into the second period before he closed his out at 3:04.

Forfeits to Chris Machado, at 145, and Bailey Ziobro, at 160, sandwiched Sean Thibaudeau’s impressive 7-5 win over Lincoln’s Stephan Balestra at 152.

Thibaudeau and Balestra finished tied at two at the end of the first period. The Mt. Hope freshman went up 3-2 with an escape in the second. In an active third, Thibaudeau scored a two-point near fall, but was called for an illegal interlocking grip and allowed Balestra a reverse to tie the match. Thibaudeau, however, later scored an escape and Balestra was likewise called for an illegal grip to end the match in the Husky’s favor, 7-5.

Up by a commanding 33-6, Mt. Hope put the match away next on Jon Perroni’s pin-fall victory in the third period of his 171 bout. Perroni held a 5-0 edge when he ended the match at 4:35 of the final stanza.

Byron Thibaubeau followed with a dominating victory at 182, a 15-1 major decision. Kyle Sousa, at 195, and David Ferreira, at 220, each received forfeits before the Lions won the final two matches of the evening at heavyweight and 106.

“I was pleased with just about all of our guys. We had some very good individual bouts,” said Latessa. “It was nice to see our guys come out and wrestle hard, wrestle with intensity for a third night in a row. It was a nice test at this point in the season.”

Mt. Hope, which still has eyes on possibly winning the I-South division title, has two very important matches next week. The Huskies are home for 4-5 North Kingstown Wednesday night, Feb. 1, then travel to 7-1 and first-place North Providence the following evening, Feb. 2. Both contests start at 7 p.m.

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