Caper Tiger wrestlers also beat Washington Township, Cherokee to improve to 17-3
ERMA — The Caper Tiger wrestlers started off Saturday morning’s quad meet with a 53-18 win over Ocean City High School’s Red Raiders that gave Billy Damiana his 150th career coaching victory.
“We like to wrestle and be successful in the Cape-Atlantic League,” Damiana said. “We want to be Cape May County champions. To beat teams like Middle Township and Ocean City, it is good to get those under our belt,” he added after the Red Raider match. “Now we’ve got to keep it rolling for the rest of the day.”
The Lower Cape May Regional High School team followed that up with a dominating win over Cherokee High School and held off a strong Washington Township team to improve to 17-3 on the season.
Damiana said reaching the 150th coaching victory was nice because he had 139 wins as a wrestler at LCMR.
“To get 150 as a coach is pretty cool, but as long as the kids win, it doesn’t really matter to me,” he said.
The Caper Tigers took control of Ocean City right off the mat with four straight victories.
The match started at 126 pounds as Nolan Mormello easily handled Raider opponent Ryan Kaczmarski 21-6.
Eli Glover had a tight battle with Wyatt Tolson at 132, coming away with a 1-0 decision after a full 6 minutes.
Dominic Marrero (138) picked up a first-period pin, taking down Reed Watson at the 1:40 mark, and then teammate Chase Hansen earned a technical fall, 19-3, over Randy Delgado at 144 pounds, giving the Caper Tigers a 19-0 lead.
At 150 pounds, Luke Bennett got Ocean City on the board with an 11-4 win over Billy Whitney.
Daniel Byrne (157) earned another technical fall for the Caper Tigers, winning 18-3 over Raider Logan Fearnhead.
Ocean City’s Zarian Cabalo won a 6-0 decision over Ashton Ray at 165 pounds, but LCMR’s Shane Morrell (175) put 6 more points on the board with a pin of Ethan Miura at the 2:13 mark, pushing the Caper Tiger lead to 30-6.
Teammate David Douglas, at 190, earned a technical fall with a 19-4 score over Raider Ayden Majors.
Jacob Chapman gave the Raiders 6 points with his pin of Caden Britton in a time of 3:31 in the 215-pound bout.
At 285, Caper Tiger John Hearon won by forfeit.
Red Raider Sawyer Gayeski, at 106 pounds, pinned his Caper Tiger opponent, Abraham Caballero, in 2:56 for Ocean City’s final points of the morning.
Tristan Rosemeyer (113) evened that out with a first-period pin of Bobby Drewnoski in 1:15, and teammate Bryce Paley won by forfeit at 120 pounds for the 53-18 final score.
Tight match
The Caper Tigers picked up a big lead early against Washington Township (15-5), but the Minutemen closed in late.
The match started at 138 pounds with Caper Tiger Glover pinning Samuel Estrada in 2:54, followed by teammate Hansen earning a pin in 54 seconds over Giovanni Goffredo.
At 150 pounds, Washington Township’s Michael Horn pinned LCMR’s Whitney in 1:13 before the Caper Tigers reeled off four straight wins.
Byrne earned a 19-1 technical fall over Jacob Gledhill at 157; Ray won an 11-0 major decision over Gio Zurzolo at 165; Morrell won by 7-1 decision over Landon Stone at 175; and, at 180, Douglas earned the quickest pin of the match — 20 seconds — over Celistino Stanfa.
That put LCMR up 30-6.
Township wrestler Jaylen Suarez pinned Caper Tiger Britton in 2:40 at 215 pounds, but Hearon returned the favor at 285, pinning Gunner McFall in 2:45.
Washington Township won four of the next five matches to narrow the gap.
At 106, Frank Albright pinned Caballero in 1:04; Dylan Hetzel won by tiebreaker, 2-1, over Rosemeyer at 113; Christian Hoopes pinned Mormello at 126; and Colton Hagerty pinned Colton Thomas in 43 seconds at 132. In the middle of that run, Paley won a 4-1 decision for the Caper Tigers over Colin Hoopes.
LCMR prevailed, 39-32.
LCMR 58, Cherokee 15
Against Cherokee (14-13), the Caper Tigers picked up wins by Glover at 138 (pin, 5:07); Whitney at 150 (major decision 22-11); Ray at 165 (pin, 4:43); Morrell at 175 (pin, 1:34); Douglas at 190 (pin, 33 seconds); Britton at 215 (forfeit); Hearon at 285 (pin, 26 seconds); Rosemeyer at 113 (pin, 33 seconds); Paley at 120 (pin, 1:53); and Mormello at 126 (pin, 1:30).
Damiana believes his team is pretty solid at this point in the season.
“I think we need to get healed up in a couple areas. We’ve got to get ready for our postseason run and then, once we get healed up, we should be 100 percent ready to make a run to Piscataway.”
LCMR is atop the Power Points in South Jersey Group 2. Close behind is Collingswood (23-2). Haddonfield (16-6) is No. 3, Gloucester (14-6) is No. 4, West Deptford (14-11) is No. 5 and Middle Township (18-5) is No. 6.
This season, the Caper Tigers have lost three matches — to St. Peter’s Prep, the No. 2 ranked team in the state; Delsea, ranked No. 9; and to Cape-Atlantic League leader St. Augustine Prep, a 35-25 loss earlier in the week. LCMR finished last week ranked 17th in the state, just behind the Prep at 16.
By DAVID NAHAN/Cape May Star and Wave
