Caper Tiger wrestlers fall 35-33 in exciting match
NEW BRUNSWICK — Nolan Mormello had a huge task ahead of him on the big stage Sunday afternoon at Rutgers University.
The 126-pounder from Lower Cape May Regional High School was the last Caper Tiger to wrestle in their team state championship match against Rumson-Fair Haven High School on the floor at Jersey Mike’s Arena.
After being behind most of the match, the LCMR team had closed the gap to 35-29. Mormello needed a pin with its six points to tie and force the match into tie-breaking criteria to determine the 2026 champion.
Mormello controlled his opponent, outscoring him 8-0, and gave the Caper Tigers’ their seventh win of the day, but he couldn’t get Henry Marshall on his back. He won by major decision. It gave the team four points.
It wasn’t quite enough.
Rumson-Fair Haven immediately celebrated its third consecutive state title in Group II, beating LCMR 35-33.
Mormello said he felt the pressure.
“I was trying my hardest just to get the kid on his back and try to get the six, but he was really fighting off his back there,” Mormello said as he and his fellow Caper Tigers milled around, down after the narrow loss.
“We’ll get them next time,” Mormello said.
The LCMR wrestling program has been on an upward trajectory under coach Billy Damiana. With 139 individual victories when he was a student, Damiana also marked his 150th win as a coach earlier this season.
The team made it to the South Jersey sectional finals the past three years, winning two and losing the title last year on a tie-breaker. The Caper Tigers won the state semifinal Friday, beating Caldwell High School 42-27 at home and making it to this year’s state final at Rutgers.
“We’ve just got to get back to the drawing board, get better,” Damiana said after the match. “It sucks seeing Brick Memorial (in the finals). “We beat them by 40, and they’re Group III.” (Brick was the No. 1 seed in Group III, but lost to No. 2 Delsea by 29 points, 51-22, on a neighboring mat Sunday.
“We went seven-seven on matches. The difference was bonus points,” Damiana said.
The Caper Tigers started off strong.
In the opening bout at 132 pounds, Ryan Morgan earned a 20-5 technical fall over Teddy Schirick at the 4:56 mark and then outstanding senior teammate Chase Hansen pinned his opponent at 138, Jordan Duque, in 9 seconds for an 11-0 lead.
Because of the coin flip, Hansen didn’t get face RFH’s starter, Joaquin Duque, whom the coach held back and bumped up to 144 pounds.
“I thought I was gonna be wrestling their starter, but unfortunately we lost a coin toss in the beginning, so I felt that I wasn’t going to get that matchup,” Hansen said. “So I just had to go out there and do what I can.”
Duque started a six-match win streak for the Bulldogs, beating Lower’s Eli Glover in a technical fall, 20-4.
RFH’s Hunter Curley followed it with a 12-5 decision over Andrew Brant at 150, and then the Bulldogs scored three straight quick pins — Sonny Amato (157) over Gabe Tosto and Wyatt Frye (165) over Daniel Byrne, both in 43 seconds, and Ryder Izzo (175) over Ashton Ray in 13 seconds.
Luke Dougherty added a 15-5 major decision over Caper Tiger Shane Morell at 190 to give RFH a 30-11 lead.
LCMR’s David Douglas put an emphatic end to the streak.
At 215 pounds, Douglas came out and put Bulldog Luke Passaloqua right on his back, securing a 16-second pin and six points.
Douglas said stopping RFH’s momentum was added motivation for him, “but every match I come in knowing I’m going to get six. It’s what I do, and I’m confident in myself I could beat anyone in the state.”
He said his win felt good but “I just wish I could have done more.”
“Next year we’re going to come in stronger. I’m only a junior and we’re going to win it all next year,” Douglas said.
Teammate John Hearon, at 285 pounds, tried in vain to get a pin, but it seemed clear his opponent, Ben Gredell, was just wrestling defensively to stay off of his back. Hearon dominated the entire match and earned three points for his team with a 5-0 decision, bringing the team score to 30-20.
“It was hard to work moves on top,” Hearon said.
The Caper Tiger heavyweight said it felt good for the team to make it to the state finals, but not for the way it ended.
He said the wrestlers had to “work and work and work and then, it’s not a letdown, but it’s not the best feeling in the world right now.”
Heading to the lightweights, LCMR’s Abraham Caballero lost by technical fall to Luke Eberhard 15-0 at the 3:35 mark, but did yeoman’s work avoiding getting pinned and giving up that extra point.
RFH was up by 15 points, 35-20, with three matches to go.
Tristian Rosemeyer, at 113 pounds, quickly cut the lead by six points, pinning Austin Cononne in 42 seconds, making it 35-26.
Next up was the longest match of the day, going into three overtime periods.
Bryce Paley, at 120 pounds, won by tie-breaker 7-4 over Eamon Fry, getting the Caper Tigers within reach, 35-29.
“It was a hard match with three overtimes. I was pretty tired. We both were going back and forth. We got a few stall calls, but I wound up taking him down in overtime,” Paley said.
“I’m happy that I won, but it’s more upsetting that the team couldn’t come away with the win,” he added.
“I’m still a little bit upset. I mean, we were supposed to come in here with the higher seed and win it. I’m pretty excited for the future. I mean, we keep having people come in the program and keep building a better team,” Paley said. “And I think next year we still have a chance to come back here and get the job done.”
Damiana said it is on to getting the wrestlers ready for districts and, for some, beyond to regions and the state meet.
“Hopefully we can just keep on this pace and continue to get back here as the standard. We have to replace Chase (Hansen), which is going to be damn near impossible,” he said. “We’ve got to replace some (other) seniors. So to say that we’re just going to get back here next year, I don’t think that we can say that. There’s been a lot of things that have to happen.
“We’ve got to get a lot better in some areas. But the standard is to get here,” Damiana said.
“We have a really young group and I’m hoping they can get back here a couple times and win the first state title,” Hansen said.
“I’m excited. I’ve got three weeks left in my high school career and I just want to win the states. I couldn’t get it done here today, so I just want to bring it home for the community in three weeks,” he said.
Hansen will be wrestling at Rider University next year.
Watching the Caper Tigers from the sidelines Sunday afternoon was former LCMR athletic director Erik Simonsen, now a state assemblyman. Back in the day, he was a storied wrestler for the school.
“It’s awesome. You wait a lifetime for this, and it’s finally come to fruition, and I believe we’ll be back,” he said. “We wrestled tough. You’re wrestling a two-time state champion, well, three-time now.
“You know it was going to come down to matchups and a point here, a point there, and that’s exactly what happened when you have a two-point match,” Simonsen said. “We were the only match in this whole (state) tournament that was close. Everything else was a blowout.”
In other state finals Sunday, in Group I, Delaware Valley beat Emerson Boro 65-8; in Group III, Delsea beat Brick 51-22; in Group IV, Mount Olive beat Toms East 47-22; and in Group V, Southern beat Old Bridge 56-15.
“The kids wrestled tough; that’s all you can ask for. They gave 100 percent. I know the coaches are proud of them,” he said.
Simonsen pointed to the consistency of wrestling in Lower Township.
“I give the guys a lot of credit in the Pee Wees, the recreation program to our middle school, up to our high school. We’ve been building this for years and it’s finally come to fruition,” he said. “We’re not going anywhere for a long, long time.”
LCMR finished 22-4. RFH is 18-4.
By DAVID NAHAN/Cape May Star and Wave
