Brick Memorial Tops Howell, Advances to Sectional Final

Dan O'Cone finally got his match.

After being publicly upset with the fact that Jackson Memorial and Southern Regional both dropped out of the Shore Conference Tournament two weeks ago, Brick Memorial will now have their chance in the Central Jersey Group IV sectional finals.

The second-seeded Mustangs beat Howell, seeded third, for the second time in two weeks, Wednesday night by a score of 30-28. They held off the Rebels in the semi-finals at . The win sets up a finals match with top-seeded Jackson Memorial on Friday.

"If we were able to make it to the sectional finals, it didn't matter who we were going to wrestle, they're all good teams," said O'Cone, the head coach of the Mustangs. "We started with Jackson and we're ending it with them. It's our entire season. It will be good to see how far we've come as a team and as a coaching staff."

In a match filled with rematches from the conference finals, the 'Stangs (18-3) took advantage of the Rebels early.

Freshman Cliff Ruggiero pinned the Rebels' Ashanti Maurice -- just as he did in the Shore Conference Tournament -- to open the match for Brick Memorial in the 145-pound-bout. 

"I don't want to say it proves it wasn't a fluke, because I think that's disrespecting Ashanti," O'Cone said. "He's a very tough wrestler. I think they are both just competitors and Cliff got lucky to catch him again."

The Rebels didn't take the lead until the 106-pound-bout, when Jimmy Slendorn pinned Memorial's Kyle Latshaw early in the second period, giving Howell the 18-17 advantage.

Brick Memorial's Joe Ghione won his match over Anthony Piazza by major decision, 20-7, in the 113-pound-bout, and Howell's Ben Esposito answered with a major decision of his own, 12-4, over Connor Maliff in the 120-pound-bout, keeping the Rebels ahead by a point.

Sean Stephenson pinned the Rebels' Jack Rada in the first period of the 126-pound-bout, putting the Mustangs up by five points with two bouts to go -- forcing Howell to win both bouts in order to win the match. 

Alec Donovan held off Howell's Matt Lindemann in the 132-pound-bout, 4-2, sending the Mustangs to the sectional final, where they will travel to Jackson Memorial.

"We liked our chances, but I don't want to pin it all on one guy. We win as a team, and we lose as a team," Howell head coach John Gagliano said.

Brick Memorial Evan Berti won my major decision over Joey Schultz in the 152-pound-bout as the Mustangs jumped out to a quick 10-0 lead.

The Rebels' got overtime decisions from Zach Bohm, 4-2, over Tyler Richardson in the 160-pound-bout -- avenging a loss to Richardson in the finals of the Shore Conference Tournament -- and Nate Litowsky, 3-1, over Jarred Eccles, 3-1, in the 182-pound-bout.

Matt Sulkowski rallied to beat the Mustangs' Anthony Miller, 4-2, in the 195-pound-bout, and George McCoy -- who bumped up to heavyweight -- came from behind to top Erza Figueroa, 3-2.

"To lose in the spots that we did, hopefully it shows that we have some balance in those spots," O'Cone said. "I think our guys did a good job, they need to learn how to finish bouts when they're up. I think our kids did good, and on Friday we will see where we've come."

The Mustangs will be at Jackson Memorial high school to take on the Jaguars, Friday, at 7 p.m. The winner will represent Central Jersey in the group finals in Toms River.