Rebels Rip East Brunswick, Head to Sectional Semi-Finals

The Rebels got their wish. Two weeks after falling to Brick Memorial in the Shore Conference Tournament finals, Howell will have a chance for revenge, taking on the Mustangs in the Central Jersey Group IV sectional semi-finals Wednesday.

Third-seeded Howell (19-3, 6-0) used back-to-back technical falls from Cole Cameron in the 138-pound-bout and Ashanti Maurice in the 145-pound-bout to slip past sixth-seeded East Brunswick, 41-21, Monday night.

Jimmy Slendorn won by pin, Nick Braiuca won by decision, and Ben Esposito won by major decision in the lower weight for the Rebels, who took a controlling 19-3 lead after Esposito's bout at 120 pounds in the sectional quarterfinals at Howell High School.

"We knew where they were strong," Howell head coach John Gagliano said. "We just wanted to take it one match at a time and get through this and prepare for Brick Memorial."

After the Bears got back-to-back decisions in the 126-pound-bout, where Eric Webber topped Jack Rada with a bout-clinching takedown with three seconds left, and the 132-pound-bout, where Sean Glasgow won by major decision over Jimmy Sisolak, the Rebels were in need of a win.

Then Cameron stepped in and stole the stage. As he's done all year, Cameron opened a set of bouts that make the Rebels a dangerous team.

The senior won by technical fall over Travis Lutzko, sending the momentum back to Howell. "I had to pick the team back up, we were looking pretty sluggish out there," Cameron said. "We look past a lot of teams, we just have to get our heads in it."

Cameron's confidence on the mat energized Howell, which won five of the final eight matches to cruise to the 20-point win. "It's just the mentality that [assistant coach Todd] Going preaches. Just beat kids up," Cameron said.

Maurice followed suit, taking down Garret Kohn by technical fall, 24-9, boosting the Rebels' lead to 29-10.

Howell got wins from Zach Bohm, 5-0, in the 160-pound-bout, Cody Kirk, 11-4, in the 170-pound-bout, and a pin from Matt Sulkowski in the second period of the 195-pound-bout.

East Brunswick took the early lead when Mike Quintin won by decision over George McCoy at 220, but Evan Pinney got a pin in the heavyweight bout over the Bears' Oliver Piuri to give the Rebels the lead.

Brick Memorial, seeded second, in the Shore Conference Tournament final on Jan. 28. The Rebels had to wrestle two matches that day, beating Ocean Township, 26-25, in the semi-finals.

The Mustangs received a bye to the finals after top-seeded Jackson Memorial dropped out due to a case of the skin disease, MRSA, breaking out among the team.

"We are [looking forward to it]," Gagliano said. "Hopefully everything changes in our favor. It'll be nice knowing that we don't have to worry about two matches, but we'll see."

"Oh man, I really don't have words for how bad I want this," Cameron said. "We need the perfect matches from the coin flip and we have to stick it to them. Everyone has to wrestle their own match and take it home."

The Rebels will be at Brick Memorial high school on Wednesday night at 7 p.m.