Braves crush Middle, wrestle hard at Delsea
Middle Township showed up Saturday morning at Absegami with a lineup filled with eight wrestlers who amassed 21 wins or more last season, including three with 30 wins or more, one of them with 45. They left with a big red ‘L’ and some bruises.
The Absegami Braves rolled over the Panthers 59-12, exploding to a 40-0 lead before Middle won one of the two bouts they actually won. In the Sports Cuts Match of the Day Absegami’s George Rhodes pinned Middle’s Davd Giulian in 5:53. Rhodes, a district champ, region finalist and state qualifier as a freshman last year gradually increased a lead that was a narrow 2-1 after one period. Rhodes was up 9-3 when he caught Giulian, who was 45-6 last season, and decked him. Absegami’s Ray Weed registered the D’Arcy Johnson Day Fastest Pin of the Meet when he flattened Samuel Keppel in 97 seconds.
Sean Cowan won by pin in 3:14, Julian Rivera racked up six more points with a 1:48 pin at 132. John Devlin earned another six-point win when Owen Haas could not continue after an early attack by Devlin left him less than 100% healthy.
Freshman Aiden Zeck piled up an 11-3 major decision. Kevin Guerrero rang up another four points with a 9-1 major. Veteran Mikal Taylor decisioned Isiah Carr-Wing 9-3 at 220.
“We did what we had to do to take care of business today,” Braves’ head coach Shawn Scannell said after the Braves’ first win of the season.
Sixteen hours earlier Absegami went over to Delsea where their team season ended in the South Jersey Group III playoffs last year. That night last winter the Braves lost a wild, contentious dual to the Crusaders that included some creative officiating and a rude home crowd. Friday the Braves lost again, 39-28, but the script was a bit different.
The three freshmen at the bottom of the Braves lineup, wrestling their first high school matches, went a perfect 3-0 at Delsea, two of the three earning bonus points. Owen Doyle majored Blaise Verdino 14-6 at 106. Christopher Eaton followed with a pin in 3:18. Aiden Zeck finished off the frosh sweep with a 6-0 win at 120.
Veteran John Devlin beat experienced Delsea 126-pounder Alexander Zimmerman 11-9 to complete a four-match sweep from 106 to 126. Sean Cowan decked Marius Fennal in 3:23 at 138 and Sahmir Brown scratched out a 3-0 win for Absegami at 195.
The Braves won seven of the 12 bouts wrestled and did it all without the services of, arguably, their best wrestler. George Rhodes was dehydrated and did not wrestle. Furthermore the Braves were up 12-3 in a bout and lost via defensive pin with 20 seconds left in the match. This doesn’t exonerate the other three Braves who lost via pin, but that bout was a 12-point swing in a meet ‘Gami lost by 11.
“I was proud of how the boys fought,” Scannell said. “We have a very young group and it was a tall task with it being some of their first career matches. Of course we have to find ways to not get in trouble and get pinned. That was the difference. We also need to work on finishing matches. Our conditioning still needs to improve but that will come in time. Overall I am proud of their fight but I feel like we let that one slip away.”
The face another New Jersey Top-20 team, Kingsway Regional, Monday night at 6.