VIDEO, PHOTO GALLERY: LCM bounces back nicely after tough defeat

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

ERMA – The sting of a defeat in what amounted to a Cape-Atlantic American Conference championship match was tempered a night later by a resoundingly strong performance by the Lower Cape May Regional High School wrestling team on Wednesday.

The Caper Tigers, a day after a frustrating one-point loss to Absegami, used nine wins by fall – many coming in the first period – to roll to a 70-12 victory over Buena in the team’s final home match of the season.

“The great thing about wrestling is that a lot of times you get a quick turnaround and you get right back on the mat,” Lower coach Billy Damiana said. “It’s not like football, where if you lose a game it sits nasty with you for a week. In wrestling you have to flush it fast. To come right back out the next day was perfect for us.”

Lower received victories via fall from Eric Coombs (106), Corson Hughes (120), Jachere Harris (126), A.J. Lemmon (132), Logan Haggert (144), Nathan Stewart (150), Brock Zurawksi (165), Brayden Castillo (175) and Sean Stoner (190).

Also for Lower (15-5), Jadan Farrow (157) won by a 21-8 major decision and Brody Saltzman (215) and Marcus Hebron (Hwt.) were each awarded forfeit victories.

Prior to the match, Lower honored its seniors and local youth baseball and football coach Rich Ray, who passed away suddenly last month. Ray’s son, Hunter, is the starting quarterback on Lower Cape May’s football team.

Lower finishes its regular season Saturday with a quad at Delsea. The team then competes Monday in the South Jersey Group II Tournament. The Tigers are seeded third and will face sixth-seeded Sterling in the opening round. If they win, they’ll turn around and face either No. 2 Haddonfield or No. 7 Haddon Heights in the semifinal the same night. All of those matches are at Haddonfield.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t seal the deal for a Cape-Atlantic League title but we have bigger things to look forward to right now,” Damiana said. “Delsea will be a big test for us and then we have our Group II match coming up on Monday.

“We’re going for a sectional title. We have to get ready to go mentally. Our seniors have a bad taste in their mouths from a couple years when we lost to Haddonfield in the sectional semifinals in a close match. They’re looking for a little redemption now.”