VIDEO: Juzaitis helps Middle wrestling program make playoff history

Posted: February 6th 2024

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

ERMA – The evening ended with the Middle Township High School wrestling team bowing out of the South Jersey Group II playoffs with a 43-18 loss to Lower Cape May.

But the Panthers made history earlier, helped by a rejuvenated senior wrestler who missed nearly all of last season.

Brian Juzaitis scored a 10-2 major-decision victory in the final bout at 165 pounds as sixth-seeded Middle upset No. 3 Haddonfield, 32-30, in the quarterfinal round Monday.

“It made me feel great,” Juzaitis said. “It’s my last year here so I was happy to get it done for the team. I was happy to prove myself that I can be dependable in moments like that.”

Juzaits wrestled in only three matches last season before leaving the program and the school for a time for personal reasons. He eventually returned and competed in football in the fall before rejoining the wrestling team in November.

“Last year was very rough on me, mentally and physically,”Juzaitis said. “When I came back and the season came around right after football, I was very excited to come back.

“After last year, I really appreciate everything about the school, football and obviously wrestling. That’s what I missed the most. I’ll never take it for granted again. It’s been a great experience to be on a great team and to be around great people all-around. I’m happy to be a part of it.”

In addition to Juzaitis, Middle got key victories from Tyler King (144) and Shaun Watkins (215) against Haddonfield. Both held leads, then lost those leads late in third period before scoring short-time reversals in the waning seconds to secure their victories. King also ended up posting back points just before the buzzer in his bout.

“Those were the two that really came through for us,” Middle coach Matt Wolf said.

Other winners for Middle against Haddonfield included Dontae Kelly (120), R.J. Attenborough (157), Max Adelizzi (190) and Maurice Matthews (Hwt.). Connor Rowlands (138) won by forfeit.

“We couldn’t be more proud of them, because we’ve worked a long time to get to this moment,” Wolf said. “Guys who aren’t even on the team anymore set us up for this. These guys have taken the groundwork that was laid and taken another step. The program has continued to build on itself.

“We’ve built the team. We were 5-20 with nine kids in the program my first year and here we are making a semifinal. And we’d never beaten Haddonfield before, so to win a match like that … Until you do it, the kids don’t think it’s possible. It takes a group of kids to believe and they do. The kids have done everything they’ve been asked to do.”

Wolf said Middle gained some extra motivation when a media outlet that covers high school wrestling across the state predicted a thrilling Haddonfield-Lower Cape May semifinal match, essentially dismissing Middle’s chances to win the quarterfinal against the Bulldogs.

“When we saw that, there’s no doubt it gave us a little bit of an edge with our attitude coming in here,” Wolf said. “We certainly used that little bit of energy to our advantage.”

Kelly, Matthews, X’Zavier Swinton (150) and Benjamin Banks (106) were all individual winners for Middle in the semifinal loss to Lower Cape May.

“Lower has a little better team than us right now,” Wolf said. “They had a better first-round matchup with Haddon Heights and for us, to beat Haddonfield, it was so emotional that it was tough to win and then turn around and then have to go against our biggest rival. But when you get to this level you have to learn how to do that.

“We’ve never been in this situation before and we have to learn from it. It’s obviously more fun to win but it was a very fun night for us to be able to wrestle Lower again. Credit to them. They won the regular-season match against us and they got the higher seed. We wrestled hard all the way through but I just think they wrestled a little bit better than us in a lot of spots.”

BRIAN JUZAITIS