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