Rebels Get Their Revenge Over South Brunswick

When the Howell Rebels travelled to take on the squad from South Brunswick earlier this season, the Shore Conference powerhouse squad came home on the short end of a very disappointing loss. 

Wednesday night the Rebels made the same trip with much higher stakes and came back to Monmouth County with a much different result. 

This time around the two teams were meeting in the Central Jersey Group IV semifinals, and unlike the last time when South Brusnwick won 39-22, this time it was Howell pulling off a 33-29 win.

"Howell is a team with a great tradition and program," South Brunswick Coach Joe Dougherty said. "With a team like that, what you get in December isn't going to be the same as what you get in February."

The match certainly started out well for the home team as they swept their way to wins from 152 all the way to 189. Those four bouts gave them an early 17-0 lead before Howell Coach John Gagliano made some moves to help his team.

In the first meeting between the two teams Gagliano sent John Hlava out at 189. This time around he was bumped up to 215 and he got his team their first points with an 11-2 major decision over Dallas Siegel. 

"We knew we had to make some changes," Coach Gagliano said. "The first time we wrestled against them didn't work.

"We also knew we had to change some of the losses. Getting bonus points was also going to be key."

South Brunswick's Kevin Moses was leading his heavyweight match by three points going into the final seconds. Suddenly, Howell's Bryan Sherlotti put Moses on his back and managed a pin with less than one second (.7) to go in the match.

"He (Sherlotti) went from getting pinned in the first match to getting a pin," Gagliano noted. "That's a 12-point swing. Obviously, that was huge. And it was such an exciting match. It was just going back and forth."

Jimmy Slendorn cut South Brunswick's advantage to 17-16 with a pin at 103 over Parth Patel. South Brunswick's Jordan Pagano, however, responded with a 4-3 win over Ben Esposito in overtime at 112.

Going into the final five matches, South Brunswick was holding on to a 20-16 lead, but in the end it was not meant to be for the home squad.

Howell closed the gap with Matt Lindemann's 9-4 win over Justin Lopez at 119. Howell then took its first lead when Joey Schultz decisioned Tommy Dorsay, 7-2, at 125. Schultz had wrestled at 130 pounds when the teams met earlier in the season.

"We wrestled a completely different team the first time," Dougherty noted. "They had different kids or they had them in the right weight class."

Howell changed eight of their 14 weight slots from its first meeting with South Brunswick.

Both teams had different wrestlers at 135  when South Brunswick's Steve Mastro defeated Stephen Strauss, 10-8, in overtime.

With the win South Brunswick led 23-22 with three matches left.

"I figured this would come down to the final bout," Dougherty said. "I liked our chances putting Jordan Pagano out there. I was confident with Jordan Pagano out there."

Pagano did win, picking up a forfeit at 145 pounds. The final result of the match, however, had been decided before that.

Howell's Cole Cameron won by pin at 135 for a key momentum shifting victory. Right after that Mike Shaughnessy clinched the team victory with a dominating 20-7 technical fall at 140 over Ryan Dorsay.

"Howell's a lot better team than we faced the first time," Dougherty said. "We're probably also a better team  than we were in December. We just left some points out on the mat."

Points that Howell needed to close that 17-point gap.

With the win the Rebels earned a spot in the sectional finals. They will make the short trip to Jackson Memorial where they will face the top seeded Jaguars. Jackson stamped their trip to the finals with a close 35-27 win over Brick Memorial on Wednesday night.

The match is scheduled to be held at 7 p.m. on Friday night.