Region 7 Quarterfinals: Toms River East’s Jayce Cappello, St. John Vianney’s Thomas Foley crash the party

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LACEY TOWNSHIP — Most everyone’s attention was directed at the top of the 126-pound bracket at the NJSIAA Region 7 Tournament. The actual fireworks were on the bottom half.

Headlines statewide were dominated by St. John Vianney senior Anthony Knox being reinstated to continue what is universally expected to be a run to his fourth state championship. The top seed at 126 pounds cruised to a technical fall victory in his quarterfinal bout for his 140th career win.

Now that Knox is back, the only question for this weekend is who he’ll face in the Region 7 final. It might be Toms River East freshman Jayce Cappello, who crashed the party by taking out No. 2 seed Ramon Alfonso Arroyo from Kingsway, 14-8, in the 126-pound quarterfinals.

Arroyo, a returning state qualifier who was briefly elevated to the No. 1 seed when Knox was initially suspended, took Cappello down just five seconds into the bout and built a 6-2 lead after the first period. Cappello had him right where he wanted him.

The rest of the bout belonged to the Raiders frosh, who produced an escape and a takedown in the second period to tie the bout 6-6 and fought back after a third-period reversal by Arroyo to score a takedown and four nearfall points on his way to a 14-8 upset victory.

“He’s never out of a match,” Toms River East first-year head coach Steven Giannios said. “So many times he’s been down seven, eight, nine points and he just keeps his head in the match and keeps scoring. He’s a gamer, that’s the best way I can describe it.”

“I had a lot of confidence going into that match,” Cappello said. “Since I’m a freshman, not a lot of people are paying attention to me so I just have to capitalize on that.”

Cappello is now 27-8 on the season entering Saturday morning’s semifinals. Four of those losses came in December. When the calendar flipped to 2025, so did his fortunes. On New Year’s Eve he started a 14-bout winning streak that included a major decision over Brick Memorial state qualifier Gavin Martin, a wild 17-14 comeback win over Manasquan standout freshman Jaden Sanders, a one-point win over Ocean region qualifier Steven Perez, and a win by fall over Toms River South district runner-up Owen Beneciuk. One of his eight losses was 5-3 to Red Bank returning state medalist Kevin Ruland.

‘He is one of, if not the, toughest kids I’ve ever coached,” said Giannios, who was a 2018 state medalist at St. John Vianney. “He has everything you want in a wrestler. He shows up every day, he doesn’t say much, and he just goes to work. Every program wants a kid like that. We can take him to levels he doesn’t even know he can reach because he has the mindset for it. The sky is the limit for him.”

Cappello will have to avenge one of his losses in order to reach the region final. He’ll face Lacey junior Aidan Flynn, the No. 3 seed, in Saturday morning’s semifinals. Flynn beat Cappello 11-4 in the District 26 final last weekend.

“All I need is one more win to get to states, so that’s the goal,” Cappello said. “I want to get to the final and have a chance to wrestle a guy like Knox. Just get there, have fun, and see what happens.”

Cappello will be joined in the semifinals by Toms River East teammates James Lynch (Hwt) and Ricky DeLorenzo (120) and is one of 36 Shore Conference wrestlers to reach the Region 7 semifinals.

District 25 team champion St. John Vianney advanced 11 of its 13 qualifiers to the semifinals with the other two still alive in the wrestlebacks. Wrestlers like Knox, defending heavyweight state champion Rocco Dellagatta, state medalists Patrick O’Keefe, Jake Zaltsman and Matt Gould, and state qualifiers Cole Stangle and Dezmond Lenaghan were shoe-ins to reach the semifinals. That was not the case for Thomas Foley, but the Lancers junior pulled off a pair of upsets to reach the 190-pound semifinals as the No. 11 seed and move within one victory of qualifying for the state tournament.

In the first round, Foley won 8-5 in sudden victory over Gloucester City’s Jaden Thompson, the No. 6 seed. In the quarterfinals he rallied from a 6-1 first-period deficit to score seven points in the second period and four more in the third for a 12-7 win over No. 3 seed Nicholas Schmied from Seneca.

“Absolutely huge for him as a confidence builder,” St. John Vianney head coach Chris Notte said. “He needed that. He came out tonight and was ready to go. He pushed through some adversity in the first match and got the job done.”

Foley will face Manchester’s Dante Mortellite, the No. 2 seed, in the semifinals. The top side of the bracket has Southern sophomore Levi Foote vs. Lenape senior Khalil Watts.

Other wrestlers seeded sixth or lower to reach the semifinals were Red Bank Catholic freshman Cole DeAngelo (No. 6 at 120 pounds), St. John Vianney junior Abraham Adu-Amoako (No. 6 at 138), and Lacey sophomore Jake Mott (No. 6 at 215).

Lacey, the District 26 champion, is right behind SJV with eight region semifinalists while Group 5 champion Southern has seven semifinalists.

Action resumes on Saturday morning at 9 a.m. with the semifinals and first round of wrestlebacks. The finals are tentatively scheduled for 3:30 p.m.