Bonus points knock Howell out of states
Rebels fall to Brick Memorial in CJ mat semifinal
BY TIM MORRIS Staff Writer
Howell won the match of the night, but it was BrickMemorial that advanced to the Central Jersey Group IV wrestling tournament final.

In an anticipated showdown of reigning state place winners at 135, Howell's Cody Fobes summoned all of his willpower to beat Brick Memorial's Karon Reid, 2-1, on a takedown in the final second.

Fobes' emotional win gave Howell an 11-6 lead in the CJ IV semifinal at Brick Memorial on Feb. 13. However, the host Mustangs seized control in the middleweights and went on to score a 30-28 victory over the Rebels.

It was a difficult loss for the Rebels to absorb having won eight of the 14 matches. However, theMustangs won four of their six matches via pins and those bonus points proved to be the difference.

"They just outwrestled us," said Howell coach John Gagliano. "We got the matchups we wanted. I didn't expect to give up those pins."

The match started at 119 with Howell's Kevin Pantaleano scoring a 7-2 decision. Joey Langel, who bumped up two weight classes to 125, came through with a technical fall beating Jake Vescovi, 19-4. The match was stopped at 5:06.

Mike Morales, the Mustangs' big gun in the middleweights, came back with a pin at 130, and it was 8-6.

The feature match followed, and Fobes, battling the flu, and Reid put on an exciting show despite the low score. That match was scoreless until early in the third period when Reid scored a point on an escape.

In the neutral position, Fobes kept relentlessly attacking Reid, but the Mustang was able to counter his attack. It was that way for theRebelsmost of the nightwith the Mustangs able to tie the Rebels up with arms thwarting their takedown attempts.

"They slowed us up on our feet," noted Gagliano.

Fobes isn't a state place winner and career 100-plus match winner because he can't adjust or find a way to win.

With the second rapidly ticking away, the Rebel tried won last shot for Reid's feet. This time, it worked.

"I looked down and saw his foot and reached for it," recalled Fobes of his decisive takedown. "He moved his hips and I caught his other foot."

With three seconds left in the match and Reid trying to get out of bounds, Fobes was in control. The referee signaled the takedown and the winning two points with one second left.

Fobes gave the Rebels a lift, but just only for the moment. Now, the match headed into the teeth of Brick Memorial's strength and the Mustangs took full advantage. Don Miller started it off with an 11-4 decision at 140 and that was followed by back-to-back pins by Steve Santos and Chris Giannios at 145 and 152 as Brick Memorial took a commanding 21-11 lead.

The key match was Santos. Undefeated on the season, he found himself on his back and trailing Howell's Jesse

out of states

Holzhauer 5-0 in the first period. Santos steadily righted the ship and tied the match by the end of the second period at 5- 5. He took control with an escape and takedown and turned it into a fall with 56 seconds left in the match.

Jason Ecklof temporarily stopped the bleeding, scoring a hard-fought 3-2 win over the Mustangs Cody Olivero.

A pin by Mike Kiley at 171 had the Mustangs rolling again, and Billy Miller's 4-3 decision at 189 made it 30-14 with four matches remaining.

Howell was going to need bonus points in bunches to win it and Brick Memorial was not about to cooperate.

Harry Turner (running his record to 32-0) andMike Bonfig got major decisions at 215 (11-3) and heavyweight (9-1) to give the Rebels a chance. Both went up against wrestlers who were reluctant to do much. Staked to the 16-point lead, theMustangs were not about to risk a costly mistake.

"They [Brick Memorial] were able to wrestle cautious because they knew they didn't have to win," noted Gagliano.

Joey Esposito (103) and Brian Wilson (112) faced the same dilemma as Turner and Bonfig and scored 6-4 and 1-0 decisions respectively for the final 30-28 score.

"It hurts," Fobes said of Howell's loss. "We thought if we could get by Brick Memorial and wrestled Jackson again [whom the Rebels beat at the Shore Conference Tournament] we had a chance to win it [Central Jersey Group IV]."

Howell, the third seed in the section, hosted No. 6 South Brunswick on Feb. 11 in a quarterfinal match. Howell raced out to a 35-0 and cruised to a 49-15 triumph.

The match started at 103 and Esposito quickly made it 6-0 with a pin at 5:05. Langel and Wilson followed with technical falls. Mike Shaughnessy won by a decision and Matt Reed scored a pin at 4:00. Fobes registered a major decision, Joe Sulkowski took 1:03 to get six points and Holzhauer scored a major decision that made it 35-0 Howell.

Ecklof won by a major decision and Turner and Bonfig polished the win off with decisions in the team's final home match. It was on to No. 2 Brick Memorial for the semis.

Howell's dual-meet season ended at 25- 4. It was a small consolation to the seniordominated Rebels that they had set a new single-season record for victories, had reached the SCT final for the first time in 20 years and captured a third straight Shore Conference A North Division championship. This team was looking to become the first team to win a state sectional title.

"We were hoping to have a run for these guys [seniors] who had worked as hard as they did for four years," said Gagliano.

Thewrestling season is far fromover.Attention now turns toward the individuals and the start of the road toAtlantic City and the NJSIAA Championships. It begins this weekend with the NJSIAADistrict 21 Tournament at Manalapan High School (Friday night, Saturday morning and afternoon). Fobes is a returning champion shooting for a third straight title, while Langel and Ecklof are both former champions who were runners up in 2007.

The top-three finishers move on to the Region VI tourney at the Ritacco Center in Toms River.