East Lyme — East Lyme/Norwich Tech endured three losses at the Windham Duals on Friday, one on a tiebreaker, dropping its overall record to 2-4.

Then, Wednesday, the Vikings opened the Eastern Connecticut Conference Division I wrestling season against defending league champion Norwich Free Academy, which had a record of 10-1 headed into the match.

Brayden Soleau, an East Lyme sophomore, started with a 6-5 victory over NFA’s Zaire Wallace — an ECC semifinalist last year — at 182 pounds, the beginning of what was a 43-27 win for Vikings.

“They wrestled excellent tonight. They were aggressive from whistle-to-whistle,” NFA coach Steve Nelson said of East Lyme. “They set the pace and tone for the match, set ’em back on their heels. ... That’s why we wrestle these matches, because nothing’s decided ahead of time.”

“I think the only reason we lost some of the matches at the weekend tournament is because we were missing a few people,” Soleau said. “Now that we have most of our people back, we’re doing really good, we’re feeling super good. Morale is high.”

Soleau helped East Lyme charge out to a 21-0 advantage with the hard-fought win over Wallace. He led 5-0 early, getting points for a near-fall, and led 6-2 early in the third period before Wallace narrowed the margin with a reversal and a stalling penalty on Soleau.

Soleau held on, giving East Lyme a 3-0 lead and the Vikings followed with consecutive pins by Jonathan Harms at 195, Jackson Hart at 220 and Jackson Lin at 285.

NFA came back to tie it at 21 with a 7-3 decision by Brock Nowakowski at 113, back-to-back forfeits by East Lyme at 120 and 126 and a pin by Wildcats 126-pounder Jackson Sorel.

J.J. Morse grabbed the momentum back for East Lyme with first-period pin at 138 and freshman Anthony Caisse won by major decision at 145 to push the lead back to double digits at 31-21.

A pin by NFA’s Tommy Brunelli at 152 brought it back to 31-27, but East Lyme swept the final two matches with pins by Lincoln Carlson at 160 and Kevin Filewich at 170.

“We have a good solid team when everybody shows up,” East Lyme coach Ed Lorah said, noting the forfeits in the early going have been due to “a little of everything.”

“I’m thrilled, I’m really happy that they wrestled well. I don’t know when’s the last time we beat NFA. We’re going to compete for it. As long as the kids are willing to work, we’ll be there at the end. It’s a long season, we’ll see at the end of the year.”

Lorah called the win by the 6-foot-2 Soleau, the younger brother of former East Lyme track and volleyball standout Savannah Soleau — both the Soleaus’ parents were Division I athletes — “a key match.”

“That was a tough match,” Lorah said. “Starting at the upper weights, we’re strong at the upper weights and then we have spots throughout.”

“It’s a wakeup call,” said NFA’s Nelson, who said the Wildcats will look to avenge the loss later in the season at the ECC tournament, hoping to still be able to capture a piece of the Division I title. “We’re approaching the midway point in the season and it’s almost good for them to get smacked in the mouth every once in a while. Hopefully we can use this to refocus, get back to work and continue to improve.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com