Cape rides five pins to 48-13 wrestling win over Milford

The Cape wresting team got pins from Germaine Sunkett at 120 pounds, Sean Sheehan at 152, Sammy Mohr at 160, Tadd Fibelkorn at 171 and Andre Flowers at 182 to win big 48-13 at Milford Jan. 18. The big question after the match was, “Cape got pins from who?”

"Aaron [Dennis] and Tadeo [Gonzalez] are banged up and were not in the lineup,” coach Chris Mattioni said after the match. “It says something about our program that we can move other kids in there and have them respond so well to varsity competition.”

Sunkett, fresh off a bracket victory in the Jan. 14 Spingbrook Invitational, found himself on his back early in his bout but regained control and composure to win by pin. ”Germaine is a tough out as a senior and 120 pounds,” Mattioni said.

Sheehan, who runs cross country and also plays lacrosse, is a relaxed “counter productive” wrestler, which means he waits for the other guy to shoot, counters and produces points. His pin fattened Cape's early lead to 26-6 and took most of the outcome drama out of the match.

At 160, Mohr was rocking his “hyped and piped” two-for-one sale early in his match, taking down his opponent for two points, then letting him up for one,  before locking up a pin and a 32-6 Cape advantage.

Cape is the only squad in the history of scholastic wrestling that has ever been able to say in seriousness ”Tadd for Tadeo” at 171 pounds. Sophomore Tadd Fibelkorn, a Lake Forest transfer, got a pin at 171, and that was followed by a pin from vastly improved Andre Flowers at 182, giving Cape a comfortable 44-6 lead.

“People say I should just use my strength, but I'm still learning,” sophomore Flowers said. “I try to be patient on the mat.”

The best match of the night, with two of the state's best at 138 pounds, featured Garrett Smith of Cape and Alvontae Drummond of Milford. The boisterous fans' commentaries were limited to “What the heck was that?” as Garrett Smith went after the dangerous Drummond, performing escape maneuvers requiring slow-motion replay to describe.

The match was tied at two in the closing seconds when Smith tried a move going out of bounds that cost him two points. The Cape crowd didn't agree with the call, but they weren't wearing the striped shirt (a few had on horizontal two-for-one outlet action wear).

“Garrett was banged up. I offered to keep him out of this match, but he really wanted to go at Drummond,” Mattioni said. “He is such a great competitor, and of course Alvontae Drummond is tremendous.”

Cape also got wins by Eriq Gloria at 106, Chris Reynolds at 113, Austin Smith at 126, Justin Lopez at 140 and Thomas Ott at 220.

Cape will step straight from the bus into the high heat of Smyrna Friday, Jan. 20, to battle the undefeated Eagles of coach Kurt Howell.