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Sports

Injury Plagued Cougars Fall to Scotch Plains-Fanwood

Seven forfeits too much for team to overcome.

It was basically over before the match even began for a depleted Chatham Cougars wrestling team as it was forced to forfeit seven matches to Scotch Plains-Fanwood on Friday night at Scotch Plains High School. Chatham fell, 62-15.

"Unfortunately, you can't control the injury bug, and it's hit us hard," Head Coach Mike Carbone said. "In the beginning of the year, we were wrestling with some pretty good teams, and now we can't really compete with anybody because we go into the match down 33-0 or 42-0. It's not a good situation."

The latest injury to a team riddled by injuries comes in the worst form possible as 160 pound senior captain Jeff Fricke—who recently took third in the Morris County Tournament—tore cartilage in his ribcage. 

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"We lost our senior captain for the year. We're not counting on him for districts," Carbone said.

So the Cougars went into the match with half a team and, for the most part, wrestled well.

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After a loss at heavyweight, 103-pounder Justin Engel worked a 7-1 decision win. The only point that Engel gave up was in the third period when he allowed his opponent to escape to his feet to better his chances to increase his lead with a takedown.

At 112 pounds, David Lappin took a 4-3 lead into the third period where he finished his opponent with a pin, giving Chatham its only lead of the day at 9-6.

Chatham wouldn't win another match until senior 215-pounder Jeff Furbish stopped Scotch Plains-Fanwood's Andrew Jacobs with a second period pin.

"Some kids wrestled well and we still pulled out some victories. There were only about seven matches, and I think we wrestled well in about five of them," Carbone said.

Chatham's quad match in Hasbrouck Heights scheduled for this morning has been canceled due to inclement weather.

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