Hampshire’s Knox Homola painted a picture of his team’s mentality as the Whip-Purs prepared to wrestle Prairie Ridge on Thursday.

“We went into the match intensely,” Homola said. “It showed out there on the mat... We just want to go out there and win. If the fastest way to do that is pinning them, then that’s what we’ll do.”

Homola was one of eight Whips to record pins and one of 12 Whips to win a bout during their dominant 67-11 victory over the Wolves in the team’s Fox Valley Conference opener. Hampshire (3-1, 1-0 FVC) set the tone right away, with 106-pounder Luthor Rajcevich snagging two crucial takedowns in a 6-1 win over Tymen Robinson.

“We want to see improvement out of our lighter weights,” Homola said. “We have a lot of young freshmen coming in and we want to practice them hard and improve them. As our first meet, this is a really big win and this will help us build later on in the season.”

Back-to-back pins ignited the Hampshire bench, as David Wesierski defeated Angelo Bueno at 113 before Andrew Salmieri pinned Yoni Bueno at 120. Lou Jensen took a forfeit at 126 to extend the lead, but the Wolves (0-1) stopped the bleeding at 132, where Lorenzo Massart pinned Gabe Calderon to put Prairie Ridge on the board.

“I was just trying to be as aggressive as possible and be a role model for these younger guys,” Massart said. “I try to put out on the mat what I work on in the room. I want us to win most of our dual meets and I want to see these younger guys get some wins.”

Leading 21-6, Hampshire strung together three consecutive pins to continue its strong showing Thursday evening. David Becker and Dawson Smith earned first-period pins over Majd Ramadan and Caleb Harmke at 138 and 144 before Aric Abbott turned a 3-1 advantage into a second-period pin against Andrew Cioper at 150.

Mikey Brannigan helped the Whips clinch their dual victory, fending off Matt Moritz for a hard-earned 9-0 major decision at 157. The senior, who wrangled a first-period takedown, scored a second takedown and two back points to help build a nine-point lead.

“I had to wrestle the full six minutes,” Brannigan said. “I did my best to not tire myself out while staying in control. As a team, we’ve been building our culture and when everybody is hyped up for the meet, we all wrestle better. Everyone comes in confident and we hype each other up, which makes everyone ready to wrestle.”

The Whips and Wolves traded wins at 165 and 175, where Jasper Hintz took down Jacob Meade for Hampshire before Prairie Ridge sophomore Aiden Rodriguez finessed four takedowns and two near falls to score a 19-3 technical fall against John Janicki. Tilts and straightforward takedowns were Rodriguez’s keys to success.

“My mentality was to get points and beat him mentally in the first period,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve been training all summer and I’ve been here trying to prove my name to the state and the nation... It motivates me and gives me the confidence to prove my name.”

After Hampshire’s Dylan Petschow took a forfeit at 190, Homola and Max Oleferchik teamed up to earn the final two victories and finish the dual in strong fashion. Homola and Oleferchik turned second-period takedowns into pins to beat Frank Matviychuk and Bernardo Tavares Vigilato and win at 215 and 285, respectively.

Hampshire and Prairie Ridge will each return to action on Friday, when both teams head west for the E-Rab Giardini Invitational at Rockford East. The two-day tournament, which features several schools from the McHenry County area, will conclude Saturday.