Joliet Catholic coach Ryan Cumbee admitted he was concerned entering Thursday’s boys wrestling match at Lincoln-Way West.

“After a solid wrestling performance the last week, I was worried our guys would have a little bit of a letdown today,” he said. “We made sure to keep them motivated for today.”

The Hilltoppers absolutely wrestled like it.

JCA won all but two bouts Thursday evening, including the final seven. The Hilltoppers cruised to a 54-7 victory with seven matches coming via decision.

“They definitely responded,” Cumbee said. “We wrestled really well tonight. We lost two bouts, but I think we really closed the gap. We’re only getting better, so I’m very happy with the progress.”

It was also a nice confidence-builder before JCA heads up to Green Bay on Friday for one of the tougher tournaments in the Midwest.

Lincoln-Way West, meanwhile, will look to improve all around. Coach Brian Glynn said his team needs to be better moving forward if it hopes to advance wrestlers through the postseason.

“The message is, we have a lot of work to do,” Glynn said. “It was pretty embarrassing, I thought. I try to put these guys in the toughest situations, and we’re just not there yet. Luckily, we have a couple of weeks to figure it out, but we’re not close to where we need to be.”

The varsity match opened with the 144-pound contest. Joliet Catholic sent out Matthew Laird to compete against Jack Strenzo, one of the better wrestlers in his weight class. The match wound up going the distance and was dead even, but Laird closed out a 1-0 decision to put the Hilltoppers up 3-0.

The Warriors held things together early. Haden Anderson took on Andrew Staab in the 150-pound match, and Anderson managed to put the Warriors up for the only time of the night, thanks to a 13-3 decision.

Joliet Catholic got right back on top at 157. JCA’s Aurelio Munoz battled Evan Gutierrez, with Munoz taking an 11-3 decision and putting the Hilltoppers up 7-4 on the night.

The 165-pound bout was next with Nolan Vogel taking a 9-5 decision over Lincoln-Way West’s Max Herman, the sixth-ranked wrestler in his weight class.

The first match of the night that did not go the distance was at 175. Vince Skedel of JCA was in total control against Blake Cagwin. Skedel took a 20-4 advantage with a minute to go in the third round to end things early and stretch the lead to 15-4.

Aidan Bishop was the next Hilltopper to take victory, a 7-1 decision at 190 over Riley Kallas. Lincoln-Way West finally snapped its skid at 215, thanks to fourth-ranked Jimmy Talley downing Ryker Czubak via 13-8 decision. That brought the total score to 18-7 in favor of JCA.

After that, it was all Hilltoppers. Daniel Dalach needed only 30 seconds to beat Adrian Gomez by fall in the 285-pound bout. Kane Robles bested Michael Scott by technical fall at 106, and Colton Schultz beat Kellan Hack by fall with 22 seconds left in the first round at 113.

“It feels great,” Schultz said. “We’re putting the work in, and it’s showing in our results.”

Finn McDermott won by 11-0 decision over Charlie Strezo at 120, while Luke Foster beat Carter DiBenedetto at 126 by fall in 1:08. Jason Hampton took care of Brady Glynn at 132 by technical fall, and Adante Washington closed it out with a 17-3 victory over Shane Stream at 138.