Big House party won by Sussex Central over Cape 40-23
Coaches Shane Miller of Sussex Central and Chris Mattioni of Cape Henlopen both said, “We’re not where we want to be right now,” after a rock and roll wrestling match at Cape’s Big House contested in front of a large crowd and won by the Golden Knights 40-23.
Both men agreed it was a great night for Henlopen Conference wrestling – the crowd was into it – and yet both teams won’t have a solid lineup until January.
“We are happy to come to Cape and get a win,” Miller said. “Our football guys aren’t in wrestling shape yet, and like all teams, we have some injuries and weight issues. But it was a great atmosphere in the gym tonight.”
The match started at 106, following the traditional light to heavy script, with Gunnar Abbott of Central pinning Cape’s Arthur Bennett at 1:05 of the first period. Cape then gave up a forfeit to Dany Ramirez at 113. That was followed by a 15-2 major decision at 120 by Mason Ankrom (last year’s state champion at 106) over Carson Kammerer.
Central led 17-0 after three bouts.
A wild match followed at 126, as Mikey Frederick went to overtime for a 16-14 takedown win over fellow freshman Ethan Vickers, who came from 14-9 down in the fourth period to almost steal the match.
“I was too hyped and making bad decisions,” Frederick said. “I got careless when I should have stayed cautious.”
After a double forfeit at 132, Anthony Caruso earned an easy six points via forfeit. That was followed with a 17-7 major decision for Brandon Greenlee over Cape’s Finbar Rishko at 145.
The Golden Knights got pins at 152, 170 and 285 to ice the match.
Jackson Handlin of Cape, wrestling up a weight class at 160, earned a 7-5 decision over Jaden Savage, and crowd favorite Eduardo Saez pinned Jovani Castaneda at 182 pounds in 34 seconds.
Billy Ott won by pin at 220 over Hiram Lasher.
A bout between friends at 195 resulted in Michael Wright winning an 8-1 decision over Chris Handlin.
“Hopefully by January we’ll have our lineup where it needs to be, with injured guys Andre Currie and Jonah Robertson back in the lineup, and other guys back down to their natural weight classes,” said Mattioni.
There were 15 bouts in the junior varsity preliminaries, with Cape holding an 8-7 advantage.
Prior to it all, Beacon and Mariner grappled over 16 weight classes and six exhibitions, with Beacon earning a 63-30 team victory; Mariner had too many forfeits in the upper weight classes.
Cape will wrestle at Charter on Wednesday, Dec. 19, followed by the Beast of the East Tournament at the University of Delaware on Saturday, Dec. 22.
Sussex Central will wrestle at Middletown on Friday, Dec. 21.
