VIDEO: Wing helps Lower Cape May to Homecoming victory

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

ERMA – Isiah Wing helped the Lower Cape May Regional High School football team put to bed a two-game losing streak Saturday afternoon.

The junior running back needed just 15 carries to produce 175 yards rushing and a touchdown as the Caper Tigers posted a 27-22 victory over Buena on their Homecoming Day.

Wing was particularly effective in the second half, needing just eight carries to post 159 yards, including touchdown runs of 73 and 44 yards. He also had a pair of long runs – including one that went for a touchdown – called back due to penalties.

Wing, a transfer from Middle Township, was playing as the featured back for just the second time after an injury to teammate Aiden McCarraher in a loss to Middle two weeks ago.

“He’s more confident in his ability and more confident in the scheme than before,” Lower coach Lance Bailey said. “He kind of had everything forced on him. He came in and learned the defense and quasi-learned the offense, but then we had to force-feed him in there after Aiden went down. It’s good to see him getting a little more confident.”

A fumble recovery by Logan Haggerty gave Lower Cape May good field position at the end of the first quarter. Three plays later, Hunter Ray scored from two yards out on a quarterback sneak to open the scoring.

After a three and out by Buena, Lower scored again on its next possession, Ray finding Braswell Thomas in the left corner of the end zone for a 22-yard touchdown play.

Buena scored just before halftime as J.J. Gonzalez threw 10 yards to Mikey Ernst on a fourth-and-goal play.

On the first play following a failed punt fake by Buena early in the second half, Wing scored his first touchdown on a 44-yard run.

Buena got back to within a score at 20-14 following a one-yard touchdown run by Gonzalez, but Wing rushed all the way to the end zone from 73 yards out on the fourth play of Lower’s next possession. Wing broke three tackles on the run.

Naz Smith scored with 25 seconds to go for Buena and the Chiefs were able to recover an onside kick, but Lower’s Zac Castellano sealed the win with an interception on the final play of the game.

Lower’s victory came one week after a shocking 40-6 home loss to Pitman.

“We saw major improvements from last week,” Bailey said. “That credit goes to the coaching staff and to the kids paying attention to detail and fixing some of the problems that we’ve had. It was great to see the kids move on from the past two weeks.

“We faced some adversity the last two weeks. Credit the kids for responding to that adversity. We had probably the best week of practice we’ve had in four or five weeks coming in here, and the kids came out and played better than we have in a few weeks.”

In addition to Castellano, Dennis Serra also recorded an interception for Lower Cape May (5-2). 

The win keeps Lower’s chances of making the Group II playoffs alive. The Tigers will need a win at Gateway next week in their regular-season finale to have a chance to qualify.

“We win next week and we’re still alive and that’s all you can ask for is a chance,” Bailey said. “We’ll need a good week of practice and we’ll need to win and we’ll probably need some help but all we can do is control what we do.”