Princeton sophomore Joel Odell said his season has been “difficult” so far.

Odell was able to shake off any past struggles Thursday as he recorded a pair of pins to help the Tigers beat Kaneland (53-29) and La Salle-Peru (59-24).

“I’ve faced a couple hard guys that I’ve struggled with throughout the season, so I’m just happy I could get a couple wins tonight.”

Against L-P, Odell was tied with Calvin Kuedla after the first period, but managed to pin him with 1:33 left in the second. Odell built an 11-1 lead against Kaneland’s Ethan Anderson before pinning him with 50 seconds left in the match.

“I felt that I succeed and was able to really do my stuff out there,” said Odell, who added he hopes to build off his strong night. “(Against L-P), I luckily caught him with a butcher. … (Against Kaneland), I had a couple shots and had gotten a couple takedowns. I also got him on his back and got a couple back points. I caught him with the butcher and just laid on top of him until he gave up and I could pin him.”

Odell was one of six double on-the-mat winners for the Tigers. Augustus Swanson (113/120), Casey Etheridge (165), Eli Berlin (190) and Rhett Pearson (215) each won twice by fall, while Corbin Brown (132) won by pin and technical fall.

With his two pins, Etheridge set the program record for career pins with 90, surpassing the old mark set by Ty Taylor.

The Tigers built a 23-0 lead in their win over Kaneland and got out to a 29-0 lead to start the match against L-P.

“I thought we looked really good,” Princeton coach Steve Amy said. “We cleaned up a lot of our issues from Tuesday against Newman and Lena-Winslow. Those teams are pretty tough, but the mistakes we were making we didn’t make tonight, so I’m pretty happy with it.

“(We improved) a lot of offensive mistakes where we either weren’t attacking or not seeing openings. Tonight, we were attacking, seeing the openings and doing the right things on bottom. We’re actually moving, controlling hands on bottom, working our way out. On top we were breaking them down tonight, working turns and hitting combinations,”

While L-P lost to Princeton, the Cavaliers pulled out a thrilling 40-32 victory over Kaneland to start the night for their first Interstate 8 Conference win of the season.

“It’s really nice to take that goose egg off the board,” L-P coach Matt Rebholz said. “I know we’re still competitive within the conference. Seeing the goose egg, the guys get discouraged, but having that win is nice. The guys showed up tonight. It was nice the seniors all showed up and wrestled tough.”

The Cavs trailed or were tied through the first 11 matches.

With L-P down 32-22, Logan Miller (190) recorded a pin with five seconds left in the first period. Endrew Sell (215) then won by pin with 15 seconds left in the first to put the Cavs ahead 34-32.

Eric Mateika finished off the victory with a pin in 57 seconds.

“Endrew showed up, wrestled relaxed and he went out and got that pin,” Rebholz said. “I think that’s what gave us the momentum going to the heavyweight match and got him all pumped up and Mateika got the first period pin. It’s really nice when you have those tough wins early and it just builds and builds.”

Also for L-P, Gianni Verucchi (120), Enrique Garcia (132) and Jentz Watson (165) won by pin, while Calvin Kudela (144) won by 13-3 major decision.

“The first conference win of the season is good, especially at home and on senior night,” Watson said. “I think we all wrestled very tough.

“The momentum change (at the end) was crazy. The atmosphere, all the fans, it was amazing to see. It was a huge night for us.”

Watson trailed 3-2 after the first period, but won by pin with 17 seconds left in the second.

“I focused on getting my shots and staying in the headspace of I can win this,” Watson said.

Against Princeton, Beau Lawrence (175) recorded L-P’s only on-the-mat win with a pin in 25 seconds.