1/23/10 Bergen County Boys Tournament @ Bowler City

This week's episode: "PC left-wingers and NA righties." It probably would have been edgier if North Arlington was abbreviated "NRA," but the point is, The Messenger eschews political jokes UNLESS he can take a poke at both sides equally. Now back to our primary purpose, before Big Brother sics a horde of bi-partisans on NJBB headquarters...

So, how about Paramus Catholic lefty Steve Natoli? All he did at the Bergen County boys bowling tournament on Saturday was fire the second-best game ever in the 37-year history of the tourney, a 299 in the final game of the morning session. Naturally, The Messenger was astute enough to observe the 4 strikes he put together at the beginning of said game before deciding, "I'll come back if he keeps it going." Yours truly then got distracted and did not start walking back to PC's lane until after the roar went up following strike 11. And, then TM still didn't get there in time to see the final ball, which left the Southpaw's Nemesis (the 7-pin) standing and gave Mr. Natoli a 299. So, still the only two bowlers to rack up a 300 in the BCT are Mike Ricciardi of St. Joe's (2002) and Steve Fernandez of Ridgefield Park (2003), the latter of whom is now the head coach at Bergen Tech. Which offers a nice segue to mention of several other flirts with perfection on Saturday:

Game 6: Bergen Tech's Steven Patchen started off with 8 strikes in a row before a 9-open in the 9th. He wound up with "only" a 257.

Game 4: Ridgefield Park's Sean Carmody came within 3 strikes of cementing the Scarlets' reputation as BCT perfectionists, stringing together 9 strikes before a flat 10-pin ruined the moment on ball No. 10. He finished up spare-strike for a "measly" 279.

Game 4: Moments prior to Carmody drawing a crowd, folks were gathered around Fair Lawn's lane, as Chris Auld blasted 8 straight strikes but was sabotaged by a 7-9 split on ball No. 9. He ended up with a "mere" 256 and tied for fifth-high series (1,314).

Game 2: Hackensack's Edmund Park opened with an 8-bagger before an 8-spare in the ninth and "settled" for a 277.

Point of order: the next 300 game The Messenger throws will be his first. In fact, the next 200 game he throws will also be a first.

As for the man who carried the most pins on the day, North Arlington right-hander Matt Priore continued his bid to win every trophy possible this season, adding a second Bergen individual title in three years with a 1,399 series. His lowest game was a 220, and his morning total of 701 was the only 700 series I noticed in the AM/PM breakdown. Natoli shot a 299 game and a 1,366 series and all he got was second place — oh, and a team championship as well. Let's not forget about that aspect of the whole deal.

Paramus Catholic's 5,966 to 5,807 victory over Bergen Catholic gave the Paladins their first title since 2002, when they won Groups 3-4. Their last prior overall championship had been back in 1991, when they capped a run of three titles in four years. Coach Audrey Lelyo watched all five of her bowlers top the 1,100 mark: Tim Lisa (221-1,106), Jim Entwistle (231-1,115), Ted Failla (213-1,125), anchor Matt Vanderhoof (244-1,254) and Natoli. Granted, PC no longer calls Bowler City home now that the team is in the Holiday Bowl-based NBIL, but the NNJIL refugees certainly made it seem like they never left.

Other notes, nuggets and tidbits of interest from this year's County event:
I tought I taw a tournament — Behold, the NJBB has found a sensible use for Twitter! For the first time, we were able to provide up-to-the-minute tweets about a tournament, and it worked out so well that we plan on working Twitter/blog combo for the remainder of the season. The Messenger's pigeon will still deliver approximately once a week — you have been warned about this site's aspirations to be the Tuesday Morning Quarterback of varsity bowling — although we have yet to define a name/role for whatever bird will carry our Twitter messages. "Tweety Bird" is sort of trademarked already.

Mixed-up, shook-up standings — Paramus Catholic not only emerged as the County champion, but also led a pack of standings-jumpers that finished nowhere near the same place as they did in 2009.

THE BIGGEST GAINERS: PC (17th in '09 to 1st in '10)... St. Mary of Rutherford (19th to 3rd overall AND the Gaels won their first-ever Groups 1-2 title behind nice days from Evan Downey [235-1,297] and Stephen Marciniak [267-1,230])... Fair Lawn (11th to 5th)... Don Bosco (9th after not entering in '09)... Wood-Ridge (22nd to 10th)... Northern Highlands (24th to 13th, may even have been their best finish ever)... Paramus (29th to 16th, more on them in a bit).

THE BIGGEST DROPS: This is *not* meant to be a shot at the teams that fell off, in fact most of these either had big graduation losses or were missing some key bowlers. Still, interesting to note — Pascack Valley (2nd in '09 to 11th in '10 after graduating a couple big guns)... Indian Hills (3rd to 31st; one bowler missed the morning due to SATs, two others were indisposed with Confirmation)... Old Tappan (4th to 23rd, another graduation-loss victim)... New Milford (5th to 28th, a byproduct of lack of experience at the 5th spot, according to one source).

I can't believe it's not buttering up, Part I — Sure, The Messenger was going to mention Paramus Catholic because they won. He suspects, however, that the Paladins could possibly be trying to curry favor by employing not one but TWO left-handed bowlers (Natoli and Vanderhoof) — heck, Coach Lelyo saw the south-pawed TM transcribing scores and commented on how she likes having lefties on her team. It is also possible this phenomena is borough-based: the Paramus Spartans employed port-siders Shane Sassone and Neil Sheth en route to their 16th-place finish, and one of them contributed to the team's coveted quadruple-digit output in Game Two. Sure, we expect 1,000s from PC, BC, Bergen Tech, Queen of Peace and Pascack Hills... but Paramus? Believe it. Sheth (212), Gordon Chen (224), Michael Wirth (200), Mike King (216) and Matt Silver (222) combined for a 1,074 on a squad that otherwise averaged around 832 on the day. A noteworthy accomplishment indeed, but again — how can the lefty-loving Messenger not be slightly suspicious? Well, maybe because he still only has about four Twitter followers. Just a hunch there.

I can't believe it's not buttering up, Part II — The Wood-Ridge Blue Devils, meanwhile, took things to an entirely new level. Not only did they employ a pair of lefties — Pat Horan and reigning North Jersey Bowler of the Year Alex Prell — they also got five solid games from the almost aptly-named Giuseppe Tartaglione. Seriously? A bowler with the same great initials and nearly identical awesome last name as The Messenger's alter ego? I have no choice but to proclaim blatant favor-currying, or at least I would, if I'd ever actually met the Wood-Ridge coach in person. Hey, TM has enough publications to write for as it is — just give him a few more years, and he should be up to knowing about half the coaches in Bergen County.

Shot of the Day Award — Probably could have filed this one under the last two sub-headings, but we like to change things up to keep the NJBB relatively fresh. Ramapo's Rob Andresen fired all deuces on the day, and to cap his 217 in Game Two, he struck out in the 10th with a little help from our favorite pin: the messenger. Andresen got the 7 to slide across a nudge over the 10 on his final ball, thereby cementing Shot-of-the-Day status on his way to tying Auld and Prell for 5th with a 1,314. Of course, there may have been countless other messengers sent flying on the day (there were over 2,300 frames thrown in the tournament), but TM only has two eyes. However, he also has a still-not-yet appropriately named e-mail address, so if you saw any that he missed, drop us a line: NorthJerseyBRG@gmail.com

Sectionals aren't for two weeks, but a number of league seasons are drawing to a close during that time, so The Messenger will continue to keep an eye out. See you on the other side...

Bergen County Boys Tournament team scores
1. Paramus Catholic, 930-984-1,091-991-975-995—5,966
2. Bergen Catholic, 1,018-996-903-877-1,026-987—5,807
3. St. Mary (Rutherford), 948-916-974-1,006-946-909—5,699*
4. Bergen Tech, 1,004-842-1,071-902-849-991—5,659
5. Fair Lawn, 927-969-889-984-894-952—5,615
6. Queen of Peace, 889-1,087-937-934-927-750—5,524**
7. Pascack Hills, 928-1,017-877-972-805-906—5,505
T8. Ramapo, 916-928-900-893-890-938—5,465
T8. Don Bosco Prep, 924-886-1,049-898-864-844—5,465
10. Wood-Ridge, 791-885-940-990-883-951—5,440
11. Pascack Valley, 930-954-858-998-786-886—5,412
12. North Arlington, 824-966-893-922-888-849—5,342
13. Northern Highlands, 999-961-854-938-780-800—5,332
14. Ramsey, 953-846-914-866-846-890—5,315
15. Ridgewood, 891-867-941-904-839-827—5,269
16. Paramus, 845-1,074-807-893-762-854—5,235
17. Teaneck, 892-809-909-863-844-869—5,186
18. Leonia, 750-803-816-985-944-886—5,184
19. Garfield, 808-959-768-850-924-866—5,175
20. Lyndhurst, 891-856-840-797-811-949—5,144
21. Hackensack, 810-937-841-876-888-770—5,122
22. St. Joseph, 837-853-893-864-820-802—5,069
23. Old Tappan, 808-846-868-887-772-857—5,038
24. Westwood, 929-808-798-896-814-778—5,023
25. Becton, 829-887-915-767-734-863—4,995
26. Ridgefield Park, 875-822-782-965-803-743—4,990
27. Bergenfield, 875-957-880-735-753-768—4,968
28. New Milford, 852-783-814-917-854-705—4,925
29. Englewood, 727-843-828-852-844-812—4,906
30. Wallington, 854-869-837-746-891-703—4,900
31. Indian Hills, 745-793-743-954-803-858—4,896
32. Park Ridge, 854-893-805-738-807-756—4,853
33. Rutherford, 811-797-865-736-710-720—4,639
34. Mahwah, 658-764-813-697-719-784—4,435
35. Fort Lee, 778-730-642-759-763-729—4,401
36. Dumont, 706-809-674-764-676-741—4,370
37. River Dell, 834-679-686-695-811-648—4,353
38. Cliffside Park, 723-720-679-636-563-619—3,940
39. Elmwood Park, 550-627-642-674-649-577—3,719
* Groups 1-2 champion
** Groups 1-2 runner-up

INDIVIDUALS (1,200 and above)
1. Matt Priore (North Arlington), 220-233-248-234-224-240—1,399
2. Steve Natoli (Parmus Cath), 204-180-299-194-233-256—1,366
3. Robert Grippo, (Bergen Cath), 254-207-221-224-191-236—1,333
4. Kyle Landau (Ramsey), 213-226-258-180-207-237—1,321
T5. Chris Auld (Fair Lawn), 245-239-211-256-164-199—1,314
T5. Alex Prell (Wood-Ridge), 217-242-209-223-197-226—1,314
T5. Rob Andresen (Ramapo), 222-217-247-208-206-214—1,314
8. Steven Patchen (Bergen Tech), 247-199-215-191-204-257—1,313
9. Evan Downey (St. Mary), 207-223-202-235-223-207—1,297
10. Bryan Kist (Pascack Hills), 258-248-167-221-183-208—1,285
11. Brian Galbraith (Pascack Hills), 224-257-215-201-163-216—1,276
12. Matt Vanderhoof (PC), 182-244-189-237-211-191—1,254
13. Vincent Siekierski (Don Bosco), 187-228-246-245-165-173—1,244
14. Brian O'Flaherty (Pascack Valley), 208-201-215-239-191-189—1,243
15. Mike Parsons (BC), 211-198-176-186-224-237—1,232
16. Stephen Marciniak (St. Mary), 191-173-197-267-180-222—1,230
17. Nick Gavron (Queen of Peace), 170-227-246-192-202-190—1,227
18. Mike Wuhrman (Park Ridge), 221-235-203-139-216-199—1,213
19. Bob Klein (Indian Hills), 214-220-190-212-190-179—1,205
20. Edmund Park (Hackensack), 149-277-211-174-198-194—1,203
21. Brian DiMarco (Bergenfield), 214-242-206-190-159-190—1,201

1/16/10 Bergen County Girls Tournament @ Bowler City

Today's episode: "History repeating," although that was not necessarily true in all cases during this past weekend's County bowling tournaments. Let's run down the list:

A.) I just looked back and saw that last year it took me a couple days to post on the Bergen County girls tournament, so it must be something about this weekend in January that gums up the works. Fortunately, UNlike last year, I was not slipping on deadly ice and losing sleep working overnights, rather I was on a day-long retreat and watching the Jets continue to signal a potential apocalypse coming (I've tried pinching myself, and I still can't feel it).

B.) Immaculate Heart Academy won its 6th consecutive County title, but similar to last year when the afternoon Baker tournament was introduced, there was one point where the Blue Eagles had to sweat things out a little bit.

C.) As I did on Sunday, July 18, 1999, I felt I was exactly where I needed to be... yet my decision between which one of two sporting events to witness ultimately cost me the chance to see a perfect game (explanation forthcoming).

Now, for some things that did not repeat for whatever reason: no Clifton winning EITHER Passaic County title? I mean, the girls team had won every County championship since I started covering this beat in 2001-02 — in fact, there was one year where I asked how long the streak actually was, and the tournament directors said they believed the Mustangs had won every Passaic girls title ever, a number I had up to approximately 13 straight as of last year. I plan to research this further, but if anyone has more concrete info, e-mail it to NorthJerseyBRG@gmail.com. Yeah, I know, The Messenger still doesn't have an e-mail address in his name. His real apologies go to those who have sent unanswered messages recently; that is another manner in which we're seeking to change the same-old history around here.

Anyhow... on to explanation time. On 7/18/99, I was back in N.J. on summer break after my sophomore year at Boston College, but I decided to drive up to Fenway Park with my brother because the Marlins were there for interleague play. Now, I'm a Yankee fan, so the meta-explanation is: the first pro athlete I ever interviewed (Dennis Springer) for a work that got published (an essay on the knuckleball in BC's freshman writing journal Fresh Ink) was a member of the Florida pitching staff at the time, so I wanted to see if I could catch up with him before the game, and if he could pitch his way out of the bullpen. The only way I could remember who the Marlins actually started that day was by looking it up on retrosheet.org, but I distinctly remember the Red Sox throwing Pedro Martinez, fresh off his "dominant" All-Star Game performance in the very same stadium (yeah, it didn't count for anything, but he did strike out 5 of the 6 All-Stars he faced)... I also remember getting this strange sensation just before first pitch that something special might happen that day. It did — just not at Fenway. Pedro got shelled, but the Bozos... er, BoSox won anyway, 11-9. The punchline/irony of the story is that David Cone threw his perfect game against the Expos at Yankee Stadium on the exact same day. If I hadn't enjoyed spending time with Dennis Springer and my brother, I would have done much more ruing about not going to Yanks-'Spos.

Anyway, it's not quite the same, but last Saturday, I headed down to Bowler City for the Bergen girls tournament, even though most of the teams I was assigned to cover were not considered top contenders. I briefly contemplated stopping by T-Bowl II for the Passaic tournament in the morning, then heading to Hackensack for the afternoon Baker round, which has become the crux of the Bergen girls tourney. Then, for no apparent reason, I said... "nahhh," and went straight to Bowler City. And, then Lakeland's Zach Zuravner bowled a perfect game. And then and then, on top of that, DePaul ended Clifton's dynastic hold on the Passaic girls crown, 2,589 to 2,305. But hey, now IHA has something to shoot for: trumping the Mustangs' 13-year streak. And, to be honest, Passaic County isn't really my beat anymore, plus it was good too see a lot of the teams that I (quasi) get paid to cover.

So, breaking the Bergen girls tourney down as we did last year, here's how the standings looked after the morning session:
1. IHA 2574*, 2. Bergen Tech 2378*, 3. Bergenfield 2293, 4. Hackensack 2281*, 5. Pascack Hills 2262*, 6. (tie) Indian Hills and Ramapo 2225*, 8. Holy Angels 2177*, 9. Northern Highlands 2119, 10. Paramus Catholic 2072, 11. Fair Lawn 1994, 12. Westwood 1963, 13. Ridgefield Park 1962, 14. Fort Lee 1929, 15. Dumont 1870, 16. Cliffside Park 1865, 17. Ridgewood 1800, 18. Mahwah 1703.
*Top 8 teams qualify for Baker round

A few things jump out at me — I mean, aside from the fact that the Blue Eagles had the only two 900+ games on the day... 1.) Wasn't Ridgewood the runner-up in this thing last year? The Maroons have had quite a precipitous drop-off, and a couple of the girls admitted it's taken the team a while to find its identity after the graduation of emotional leaders Kim Burdi and Courtney Visco. But chin up RHS fans, the Jets had been through 11 rebuilding years since their previous AFC title-game appearance. Persistence pays off, apparently, eventually... 2.) Of course, the one tie in the whole tournament was between intra-district rivals Ramapo and Indian Hills. Bowling seems to be the one sport where the Braves typically have a leg-up on the Green Raiders — once upon a time, a close, personal friend of The Messenger even used that premise to write an essay for his IHHS English class — so naturally, Ramapo won the coin toss to be the No. 6 seed. And yet, the Braves still ended up with the last laugh... 3.) Northern Highlands finished 9th for the second year in a row. Last year, they missed advancing by 140 points, this year it was only 58. As Mr. Powers might say, "Ouch, babe. Very ouch." At least the Highlanders got some recognition when senior Alex Hubelbank won the 2nd-high game medal — she also had 4th-high series, but according to BCWCA rules, a bowler cannot receive both high-game and high-series medals... which might lead me to another tangent, except that I overheard some tournament folk mulling the possibility of dropping that rule next year, so let's move on.

Speaking of high series and game, I left that out of last year's Bergen girls recap. Another vote for not repeating history:
High series medals - 1ST, Nicole Linder (IHA), 655; 2nd, Stacy Fernandez (Ridgefield Park), 593; 3rd, Ashley Johnson (North Arlington), 555; 4th, Nicolette Brenner (Cliffside Park), 553; 5th, Colleen Blake (IHA), 542.
High game medals - 1ST, Bridget Pyryt (Indian Hills), 243; 2nd, Alex Hubelbank (NH), 235; 3rd, Yeliz Inalman (Fort Lee), 233; 4th, Taylor Strothmann (IHA), 221; 5th, Nikki Villani (Lyndhurst), 214.
Actual order of finish:

PLACE	SCHOOL	GAME 1	GAME 2	GAME 3	TOTAL
1st	Nicole Linder, IHA	258	203	194	655
2nd	Stacy Fernandez, RP	244	183	166	593
3rd	Bridget Pyryt, Indian Hills	195	146	243	584
4th	Alex Hubelbank, NH	162	235	184	581
5th	Ashley Johnson, NA	211	173	171	555
6th	Nicolette Brenner, CP	205	181	167	553
7th	Collen Blake, IHA	183	154	205	542
8th	Taylor Strothmann, IHA	170	141	221	532
9th	Nikki Villani, Lyndhurst	168	149	214	531
10th	Cassidy Fiore, B'field	160	200	170	530
11th	Marina Consalvo, PH	147	212	169	528
12th	Carly Bonsignore, Ramapo	201	176	146	523
13th	Yeliz Inalman, Fort Lee	143	142	233	518
14th	Lexus Lopez, Lyndhurst	166	167	180	513
15th	Korey Kozaryn, H'sack	190	167	150	507

Ok, down to the nitty-gritty. Heading into the Baker round, spots 3 through 7 were separated by 72 points. The aforementioned Braves of Indian Hills made the biggest move, jumping from 7th to 4th to advance to the head-to-head semifinals. And guess who they edged out by 5 pins? (History repeating alert!) Yup, the same Bergenfield team that they edged by 1 pin at sectionals last year for a spot in the State finals. Final totals in parens:
1. Immaculate Heart 119-144-191-144 (3172)*
2. Bergen Tech 141-158-133-175 (2985)*
3. Hackensack 178-152-162-121 (2894)*
4. Indian Hills 154-189-137-138 (2843)*
5. Bergenfield 151-133-145-116 (2838)
6. Pascack Hills 159-107-141-163 (2832)
7. Ramapo 152-116-154-170 (2817)
8. Holy Angels 155-149-153-158 (2792)

Have to give some props to Holy Angels as well, since they had the second-highest Baker total but were just too far back to catch up.

In the Bergen Tech/Hackensack semifinal, the Comets were clearly the more consistent team on the afternoon, prevailing 172-136, 170-148 over their sort-of crosstown rivals. I say "sort of" because between Bergen Tech and Bergen Academies, they have campuses in Hackensack, Teterboro and Paramus. Although I'm pretty sure the folks at Teterboro Airport don't have a entry in the NJTCC this year.

The biggest intrigue came in the IH/IHA semifinal (I've been waiting to type that since my prediction of an IH/IHA final in last year's Bergen County softball tournament failed. Insert your own "Old MacDonald" joke here). The Blue Eagles rolled in the 1st game, 194-135. The Braves came back strong in the 2nd game, 190-146. It should be noted that the teams switched lanes after each of the first 2 games, so IHA ended up on the "hot" lane for the finale. IH started off with an open frame, and IHA marked through the first 5. But Pyryt and Breana Parian struck back-to-back for the Braves in the 5th and 6th, while the Eagles left an open in the 6th. However, IH ended up chopping a bit too much wood to overcome... with a chop-chop here, and a chop-chop there— (sorry, couldn't resist). Linder struck out in the 10th to seal a 185-138 Game 3 win, but the Braves had nothing to hang their heads about, considering it was their best-ever County finish.

That left us with an all-NJTCC final: Hackensack's Kelsey Sarro, Jaclyn Draney, Stacie Harewood, Rachel Healy and Korey Kozaryn versus IHA's Colleen Blake, Hanna DiFresco, Murphy McVey, Taylor Strothmann and Nicole Linder. For a Blue Eagles team that returned only one starter and one varsity part-timer, inexperience did not show; they took Game 1, 182-97. In Game 2, Blake led off with a strike — she did that in all 5 head-to-head Baker games, an overlooked tone-setter to which The Messenger, at least, will call attention — while Sarro ended up with an 8-split. The Comets picked her up, though, posting a coveted turkey to counteract three straight spare pickups by IHA. Hackensack then left an open in the 6th frame, but that was not the real turning point.

In the 7th, the southpaw DiFresco struck, while Draney wound up saddled with the dreaded 7-10 split. Right there, it just seemed like things were going IHA's way. Draney did the smart thing and got the wood, knocking down the 7, but the Blue Eagles had clean frames basically the rest of the way. Final game score: IHA 214, Hackensack 175.

So there you have it. In response to a recent NJ.com forum posting, The Messenger's pigeon may move slower than one of Springer's knucklers, but it gets the job done. Said pigeon also has TM considering enlisting another member of the avian family for coverage purposes... it always takes time to type up a good, thorough blog, but what about the N.J. bowling fan just looking for straight results?

As such, this weekend the New Jersey Bowling Blog will be dusting off its long-forgotten Twitter account (which has been SO forgotten that it's still in the name of a former reporter/alter ego). Lord willing, we'll figure out this technology stuff and be able to tweet game-by-game coverage of the Bergen boys tournament. Good thing, too — there's a chance The Messenger may face yet another conflict with his blogging time on Sunday... as in, both recent history and ancient history seem to foreshadow an impending stampede of angry Colts!

1/9/10 North Jersey Singles Classic @ Parkway Lanes

Today's episode: "The BCSL Tango & the Pennsylvania Polka." The boys final was a showdown between Bergen County Scholastic League National/Olympic rivals Dylan Caruso of Secaucus and Matt Priore of North Arlington. On the girls side, Lorisa Jones of Marist squared off with Jillian Keller of Pennsbury (Pa.) — if you thought Howell came a long way to win the Holiday Team Challenge last month, the Falcons one-upped them; Pennsbury is 30 miles west of Philadelphia. And, much like Howell, the Keystone State contingent had an FDU connection: head coach Christi White bowled for the Knights' NCAA championship team in 2006.

Speaking of FDU, Mike LoPresti and the gang did another great job of putting the tournament together, and they made a couple of tweaks this year. Instead of staggering the starts of the boys and girls tournaments, they started both at around the same time — still a long day, but that was a plus time-wise. The concept of byes for the Top 4 bowlers in the first round was a nice addition, too, although once again, neither No. 1 reached the finals. Extra thanks to Lisa (whose computer thankfully did NOT crash this year) for help with score printouts.

There were a fair share of monster scores on the day. Four bowlers took perfect games into the 10th frame, and two of them were Paramus Catholic lefties: Matt Vanderhoof in qualifying Game 2 ended with a 267, and Steve Natoli in the Round of 12 rolled a 276. Also, Michael Higgins of Ridgefield Park took it down to the last ball of Q-Game 3 and shot a 298, and Steven Patchen of Bergen Tech fired a 275 in the Round of 36.

Fans of the old-fashioned 1-on-1 roll-offs got a treat as well. Pascack Hills' Bryan Kist and Old Tappan's Kyle Folkers were tied for the final transfer spot to the "Desirable Dozen" (well, the FDU folks almost rolled a perfecto) — both struck on their first ball and both struck on their second ball, before Kist got a 6 and Folkers shot an 8. In the girls "Great Eight," Crystal Keller of Lenape Valley and Taylor Maurer of Queen of Peace tied for the fourth semifinal spot — both threw strikes before Maurer got an 8 and Keller struck.

Crystal attempted to make it an all-Keller final, but the semifinal scores were quite impressive, and Jones and Jillian Keller advanced. IRONY ALERT: Crystal Keller's 225 in the semis would have been good enough to advance to the boys finals. Thanks to coach LoPresti for pointing that out. Also, big props to second girls semifinalist Maylena Marks of Leonia... she went 154-202 in her first two Q-Games, dropped to 136 in Game 3, but held on to earn the final spot in the Round of 20. Then, in her march to the semis, she also had the top score (205) in the Round of 8. That is a quality bounce-back effort for you.

Caruso, meanwhile, made the boys semifinals for the second straight year and took it a step further. However, he was hurt by an open frame late in the finals, and Priore was just locked in. He started the day with a 181 and threw all deuces the rest of the way to the title match, then wrapped things up with a 191-173 win over his BCSL rival in the finals.

As for Jillian Keller — egads, we just became the New Jersey Bowling Blog, is it time to expand into Pennsylvania already? At least we know the Falcons had something to talk about on the long ride home, and Keller was a deserving champ. Jones threw BB's all day, but Keller left only the final two pins standing in the finals, sealing a 235-156 victory with a late 4-bagger. P.S. If you follow the above link, you'll get more evidence that Miss Keller of Pa. is the real deal. Incidentally, there is no relation between she and Miss Keller of N.J.

Tournament season is starting to heat up in earnest — Counties ahead next weekend, and The Messenger will be at the Bergen Couny Girls Tournament, although he is still contemplating starting a morning-afternoon doubleheader at Passaic County. See you on the other side...

BOYS - ROLL-OFF QUALIFIERS

1. Jonathan Glattstein (North Bergen), 777; 2. Matt Vanderhoof (Paramus Cath.), 733; 3. Brian Galbraith (Pascack Hills), 729; 4. Alex Prell (Wood-Ridge), 716; 5. Kyle Landau (Ramsey), 691; 6. Jaylin Floyd (Manchester Reg.), 662; 7. George Bosch (Queen of Peace), 661; 8. Joshuah Romero (Teaneck), 661; 9. Ted Failla (Paramus Cath.), 657; 10. Nick Roman (Wood-Ridge), 653; 11. Steven Patchen (Bergen Tech), 653; 12. Rob Oszust (Lenape Valley), 647; 13. Nicholas Deliantis (St. Mary-Ruth.), 646; 14. Matt Priore (N. Arlington), 642; 15. Chris Auld (Fair Lawn), 634; 16. Greg Corradi (DePaul), 633; 17. Dylan Caruso (Secaucus), 632; 18. Brian DeMarco (Bergenfield), 629; 19. Jonathan Eckstein (Indian Hills), 629; 20. Brian O'Flaherty (Pascack Valley), 624; 21. Sean Carmody (Ridgefield Park), 621; 22. Ryan Landau (Ramsey), 616; 23. Sam Delgado (Union City), 612; 24. Brian Kist (Pascack Hills), 610; 25. Andrew Suscreba (Q of P), 609; 26. Jimmy Rivers (Westwood), 606; 27. Steve Natoli (Paramus Cath.), 606; 28. Michael Higgins (Ridgefield Park), 602; 29. Nicholas Keim (Ridgefield Park), 600; 30. James Hoover (Teaneck), 599; 31. Larry Tufaro (Wallkill Valley), 599; 32. Marc Solangon (Bergenfield), 599; 33. Soungjin Choi (DePaul), 596; 34. Corey Burtwell (Passaic Tech), 595; 35. Kyle Folkers (Old Tappan), 594; 36. Johnson Pau (Bergen Tech), 594.

BOYS ROUND OF 36 (Top 12 advance): Glattstein, Vanderhoof, Galbraith and Prell — BYE; 5. Patchen, 275; 6. Priore, 268; 7. Tufaro, 259; 8. Natoli, 257; 9. Hoover, 253; 10. Caruso, 248; 11. Suscreba, 245; 12. Folkers, 232*; 13. Kist, 232; 14. Auld, 224; 15. Pau, 223; 16. Floyd, 213; 17. Bosch, 207; 18. Carmody, 203; 19. (tie) O'Flaherty and Keim, 202; 21. (tie) R.Landau and Rivers, 198; 23. (tie) Higgins and Burtwell, 194; 25. Romero, 193; 26. Oszust, 190; 27. Roman, 189; 28. (tie) Corradi and Eckstein, 185; 30. Deliantis, 180; 31. Solangon, 177; 32. Choi, 175; 33. Failla, 172; 34. DiMarco, 169; 35. Delgado, 162; 36. K.Landau, 154.
*Advanced via roll-off

BOYS ROUND OF 12 (Top 4 advance): 1. Priore, 277; 2. Natoli, 276; 3. Glattstein, 258; 4. Caruso, 241; 5. Vanderhoof, 211; 6. Suscreba, 210; 7. Folkers, 200; 8. Prell, 192; 9. Galbraith, 187; 10. Patchen, 172; 11. Hoover, 171; 12. Tufaro, 161.

BOYS SEMIFINALS: 1. Priore, 227; 2. Caruso, 206; 3. Natoli, 191; 4. Glattstein, 177.

BOYS FINALS: Matt Priore 191, Dylan Caruso 173.

GIRLS - ROLL-OFF QUALIFIERS

1. Crystal Keller (Lenape Valley), 641; 2. Jillian Keller (Pennsbury), 634; 3. Nicole Sussman (Raritan), 610; 4. Lorisa Jones (Marist), 601; 5. Ashley Johnson (N. Arlington), 593; 6. Rebecca VanDyk (Q of P), 573; 7. Sonja Shirak (Clifton), 568; 8. Megan McNally (Pascack Hills), 561; 9. Nicole Linder (IHA), 554; 10. Taylor Maurer (Q of P), 548; 11. Taylor Strothmann (IHA), 543; 12. Stacy Fernandez (Ridgefield Park), 538; 13. Colette Malyack (DePaul), 528; 14. Ashley Plenski (Pennsbury), 514; 15. Beth Moser (Pennsbury), 507; 16. Tara Bechter (Pennsbury), 502; 17. Nikki Villani (Lyndhurst), 499; 18. Kim Ercolino (Bergen Tech), 494; 19. Adriana Stapelman (Fair Lawn), 493; 20. Maylena Marks (Leonia), 492.

GIRLS ROUND OF 20 (Top 8 advance): C.Keller, J.Keller, Sussman and Jones — BYE; 5. Shirak, 213; 6. Maurer, 204; 7. Villani, 196; 8. Marks, 195; 9. Johnson, 193; 10. Linder, 190; 11. Bechter, 186; 12. Malyack, 181; 13. Plenski, 177; 14. McNally, 173; 15. Fernandez, 162; 16. Stapelman, 159; 17. Moser, 155; 18. Ercolino, 150; 19. Strothmann, 139; 20. VanDyk, 134.

GIRLS ROUND OF 8 (Top 4 advance): 1. Marks, 205; 2. J.Keller, 193; 3. Jones, 191; 4. C.Keller, 183*; 5. Maurer, 183; 6. Villani, 182; 7. Sussman, 176; 8. Shirak, 169.
*Advanced via roll-off

GIRLS SEMIFINALS: 1. Jones, 247; 2. J.Keller, 236; 3. C.Keller, 225; 4. Marks, 131.

GIRLS FINALS: Jillian Keller 235, Lorisa Jones 156.

HIGH GAMES (BOYS QUALIFYING): Michael Higgins, 298; Jonathan Glattstein, 280; Matt Vanderhoof, 269, 267; Kyle Landau, 265; Alex Prell and Rob Oszust, 264; Nick Roman, 258. HIGH GAMES (GIRLS QUALIFYING): Lorisa Jones, 247; Taylor Maurer, 229; Crystal Keller, 228; Ashley Johnson and Megan McNally, 225; Jillian Keller and Rebecca VanDyk, 222.