Playoff-hungry LCM to host group matches; Middle also in pod

Posted: February 4th 2024

Lower Cape May’s wrestling team will host group playoff matches Monday. Pictured are Lower seniors (from left) Jeff Flinchum, Jahcere Harris, Deon Azile, AJ Lemmon, Isaiah Carr-Wing, Ben Rue, Sean Stoner, Quinten Hagan, Braydon Hamilton, Logan Haggerty and Ryan Rush.

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

Monday shapes up to be a special day for the Lower Cape May Regional High School wrestling program.

The Caper Tigers will host one of the two pods in the South Jersey Group II Tournament. They are seeded second in the bracket and will wrestle against No. 7 Haddon Heights in the opener in the Tigers’ home wrestling gym, with No. 3 Haddonfield facing No. 6 Middle Township at the same time in Lower’s usual basketball gymnasium.

The winners of those matches will face off at approximately 6:30 p.m. in Lower’s wrestling gymnasium.

Lower Cape May will be a prohibitive favorite against Haddon Heights, based on the fact that Lower posted a 67-10 victory over the Garnets a couple of weeks ago.

Haddonfield is a favorite over Middle in the other quarterfinal. Lower, in one of its biggest victories in a dual match in years, registered a 33-28 win over the Bulldogs in early January.

Whichever team emerges from Monday’s results will face the winner of the other pod on Wednesday. That will most likely be West Deptford, the top seed in the bracket.

Lower will rely on its usually vibrant home crowd to help carry it through Monday’s action.

“It’s going to be great. I’m super excited,” said Lower Cape May senior 175-pounder Logan Haggerty. “The crowd’s going to be great. They’re going to be super pumped up.”

Lower has been a regular playoff qualifier in recent years. But the Tigers have wrestled at Haddonfield in each of the previous three seasons. There’s no doubt they’re looking forward to the opportunity to be wrestling on their home mat.

“We’ve gone to Haddonfield four straight times and everyone knows the atmosphere up there is very tough,” Lower coach Bill Damiana said. “In order to reach our goal, we’re happy to finally be able to host and make everyone drive down here to us.”

In addition to wrestling at home, Lower Cape May is also expected to be at full strength for the playoff matches. When Lower wrestled Haddonfield earlier this season, 106-pounder Bryce Paley was forced to sit out due to an eligibility technicality after transferring into Lower Cape May and 215-pounder Quinten Hagan missed due to illness.

Lower Cape May heavyweight Ben Rue said wrestling at home will be special, especially for him and his fellow senior teammates.

“We’ve always been on the road for the playoffs so it’ll be good to get the support from the home crowd,” Rue said. “We’ve been waiting for this for a while. We’ve had to go to Haddonfield the last couple years and it didn’t go our way. This time it’ll be different with that home-crowd support behind us.”

Lower Cape May goes into the playoff matches having finished its regular season dual match schedule at 19-5.

Although an underdog, Middle Township goes into its match with Haddonfield on a bit of a roll. The Panthers (14-6) enter the playoffs on an eight-match win streak that includes a dominating sweep of a quad at Overbrook on Saturday that also included Sterling and Paul VI.

It’s not inconceivable to see Middle spring an upset, but the Panthers will need to get a win or two in some unexpected places to do so.

Cape Atlantic Live will air the Lower Cape May-Haddon Heights match on its YouTube channel and Facebook page at 5 p.m. Should Lower advance, Cape Atlantic Live will also air the semifinal at 6:30 p.m. against either Haddonfield or Middle.