2/13/10 North Jersey 1A Sectional Finals - Boys

Wow. I mean, that's basically all I have to say, is wow. There were some monster scores at Bowler City today in the North 1A boys finals — monster to the degree that a couple of schools shot 1,000 games and still didn't make the State team finals; also to the degree that some competitors averaged 220 for the day and didn't make the State singles finals. As for those who are headed to Carolier...

High team score of the day: Bergen Catholic, which took home the Group 4 championship with a healthy 3,112. The Crusaders' lowest game was a 1,022. In their best game (1,056), four guys all shot 212 or better, and the only one who didn't — sophomore Charlie Long (157) — immediately bounced back and threw the third-highest game of the day, a 278. Remarkable. Senior Rob Grippo led the way with a 711, and if you think we're done talking about him OR about 700 series, think again... Now, if you happened to be following the NJBB's fancy Twitter account, you may have noticed The Messenger refer to the Group 4 runner-up as "Teaneck (!)". He was that surprised at how well the Highwaymen did. This should NOT be perceived as a knock, because TM has witnessed Teaneck bowl on several occassions and has duly noted that their top 4 is pretty solid. It's just that today, "pretty solid" turned into "eyebrow-raisingly awesome," particularly in Game 2, where the Highwaymen scored 1,084. Guess I need to give leadoff man James Hoover some credit for approaching The Messenger to call attention to his squad — Hoover (224–626) and anchor Joshuah Romero (232–646) all went over 200 each game, and No. 5 man Justin Stumpf, who averaged 156 in just 9 league games this year, went over his average every game on his way to a 191–519.

However, if you wanted to witness mega monster scores, Group 3 was the bracket to see. Pascack Valley, which was almost an afterthought at Counties, was back at full strength and defended its title in impressive fashion (3,102 to be precise). The man of the hour was junior anchor Brian O'Flaherty, who opened up with a 299 (darn flat 7-pin) and closed with a 682 series. Sophomore Tim Frantin got in on the act in Game 3, blasting 7 strikes in a row for a 225. And, now fully recovered from a bad hammy that kept him out for the first half of the season, Joey Farinelli chipped in with a 234–630. That makes PV 2-for-2 in sectional titles with Rob Folkers' wooden tiki doll as its mascot, and colorful senior left-hander Jon Frantin (the original Frantin, being Tim's older bro) hinted that the Indians may bring back the hiked-up baseball socks for next Saturday's team finals... Believe it or not, Ramsey actually had a 7-point lead on PV after the Game 1, getting deuces from 4 of its starting 5 for a 1,049. The Rams "slipped" to 927 in Game 2 (as if that's something to sneeze at) and wound up with a 909 in Game 3. Junior Kyle Landau rolled a 258-209-256–723 and did NOT get high series — see what we're talking about with the "monster" stuff? — and, despite occupying a transfer spot to Carolier for each of the first two games, Ramsey was overtaken by one of its arch-rivals... Indian Hills ensured that BOTH Group 3 qualifiers would atone for sub-par County tournaments, and Hills' outing may be even more astounding considering one of the Braves' best bowlers is no longer on the team (don't ask TM how it happened, because even he knows not of the details). On the other hand, it really should be all about the bowlers who were there for IH, and perhaps the one to step up the biggest was southpaw Andrew Wierzbicki, who started off well (179) and got better (222) and better (239) as the day went on. He also gets the "stealth bowler" award for throwing TM into a state of confusion, having used "Becky" as his nickname on the scoreboard. What, "Bicki" wasn't tough-sounding enough? Oh those wacky Braves...

The only bracket in which none of the teams hit quarduple digits on the day was Group 2, although Lyndhurst made a bid in Game 2 (989) on its way to picking up the sectional title with a 2,825. The Messenger didn't get to observe as many of the Group 2 schools, and kind of wishes he would have taken a closer look at the Golden Bears' scoresheet — they have at least two or three talented girls (including Nikki Villani, who's been pulling double duty all winter) and TM is now curious about what kind of contributions they made... Pascack Hills earned the second qualifying spot with a 2,689, meaning everybody in the Pascack school district gets next Saturday off for the State boys team finals! Oh wait...

Finally, we come to Group 1. Always where the lowest scores are, right? WRONG. North Arlington (1,067), Queen of Peace (1,051) and St. Mary of Rutherford (1,005) all hit the millenum mark in Game 1, and Wood-Ridge did so in Game 3 (1,063). QP went on to repeat as group champion with a 2,902 and produce the individual champ, Andrew Suscreba, who shot — get this — 226-262-247–735. Suscreba averaged 245 to win. The Messenger will have to go back and check the archives, but this was the highest sectional series he can remember in quite some time. Two other individuals qualifiers came out of this bracket, and they were two of the usual suspects: Matt Priore (276–693) finished fourth and Alex Prell (235–683) fifth. The real eye-opener (as if we haven't documented enough already) between those two was that Priore shot a 148 in Game 2, getting saddled with at least 3 splits — and then he and North Arlington regrouped to hold off Prell and Wood-Ridge for the final transfer spot, 2,847 to 2,837.

And now, let us head for the big finish by taking a float down:
The Stream of Consciousness... didn't notice it until the end, but Hackensack competed with only four bowlers. Didn't get an explanation, so if anybody has one, e-mail the link at the end of this entry... other than O'Flaherty's 11-strike string in his 299, the most consecutive strikes TM witnessed was 10 in a row by Northern Highlands freshman Josh Taylor. Not coincidentally, he had the second-high game with a 288. Long had 9 strikes in a row in his 278, which got the BC soph third-high game honors... Ramapo advanced one individual to the State singles finals, but perhaps not the one that was expected. Senior Rob Andresen had a very nice 216–614, but sophomore Kevin Macchia stole the Green Raiders' spotlight with a 237–674 to earn a trip to Carolier on Wednesday. And if that's not enough, well, Ramapo won its first-ever league bowling championship, going into the history books as the final NBIL-1 champ ever... there were a couple of other brief flirts with perfection in Game 3, as Garfield's Vicent Mooney opened with 5 strikes, and Mahwah's Kris Jergensen started off with a 6-bagger. Jergensen then struck out in the 10th for a 232, helping the T-Birds to an 883, which coach James Dalessio agreed may have been their best five-man effort of the season... naturally, Don Bosco senior Ryan Cobb attacked the lanes like a linebacker, firing a 233–666 to come within 4 pins of qualifying as an individual. Okay, I'm pretty sure he's going to Virginia as a tight end, but the point is he's a tough sonofagun — dude had the thumb on his left (throwing) hand taped up and didn't shoot lower than 213... and The Messenger told you that he wasn't done speaking of Mr. Grippo, mostly because he wasn't done bowling at the end of the tournament. The BC anchor stuck around to play a "mano-e-woman-o" match with Highlands' Alex Hubelbank when it was all over... and he shot a 300. There were about 8 people milling around his lane, it didn't county for anything, but there it was: the first time TM ever observed the 12th and final roll of a perfecto. The best response — O'Flaherty was standing nearby and jokingly offered Grippo his high-game trophy.

And with that, I have nothing more to say that is either relevant or true. Roll credits!

North 1A Sectional Tournament scores

GRP 4	SCHOOL	GAME 1	GAME 2	GAME 3	TOTAL
1st	Bergen Catholic	1054	1022	1036	3112*
2nd	Teaneck	928	1084	897	2909*
3rd	Fair Lawn	994	935	907	2836
4th	Ramapo	986	894	954	2834
5th	Bergen Tech	952	944	865	2761
6th	Don Bosco Prep	896	912	944	2752
7th	Bergenfield	879	882	931	2692
8th	Paramus Catholic	948	879	849	2676
9th	Ridgewood	869	903	830	2602
10th	Hackensack	726	706	671	2103~
GRP 3	SCHOOL	GAME 1	GAME 2	GAME 3	TOTAL
1st	Pascack Valley	1042	1041	1019	3102*
2nd	Indian Hills	982	945	1010	2937*
3rd	Ramsey	1049	927	909	2885
4th	No. Highlands	972	924	842	2738
5th	Old Tappan	958	917	839	2714
6th	River Dell	890	915	856	2661
7th	Garfield	806	901	856	2563
8th	Englewood	775	785	873	2433
9th	St. Joseph	827	820	710	2357
10th	Mahwah	720	714	883	2317
GRP 2	SCHOOL	GAME 1	GAME 2	GAME 3	TOTAL
1st	Lyndhurst	939	989	897	2825*
2nd	Pascack Hills	858	938	893	2689*
3rd	Rutherford	870	801	903	2574
4th	Dumont	846	848	859	2553
5th	New Milford	772	909	862	2543
6th	Ridgefield Park	738	878	904	2520
7th	Leonia	809	917	786	2512
8th	Westwood	822	773	770	2365
9th	Elmwood Park	714	629	679	2022
GRP 1	SCHOOL	GAME 1	GAME 2	GAME 3	TOTAL
1st	Queen of Peace	1051	978	873	2902*
2nd	North Arlington	1067	798	982	2847*
3rd	Wood-Ridge	861	913	1063	2837
4th	Becton	897	923	944	2764
5th	St. Mary (Ruth.)	1005	853	872	2730
6th	Wallington	793	961	889	2643
7th	Park Ridge	897	806	804	2507
8th	Midland Park	745	673	664	2082
9th	Ridgefield	712	624	601	1937

*Qualified for State team finals @ Carolier Lanes, Feb. 20
~Four-man team scores

INDIVIDUALS

PLACE	BOWLER/SCHOOL	GAME 1	GAME 2	GAME 3	TOTAL
1st	Andrew Suscreba, QP	226	262	247	735
2nd	Kyle Landau, Ramsey	258	209	256	723
3rd	Rob Grippo, Bergen C.	246	227	238	711
4th	Matt Priore, No. Arling.	269	148	276	693
5th	Alex Prell, Wood-Ridge	216	232	235	683
6th	Brian O'Flaherty, PV	299	226	157	682
7th	Kevin Macchia, Ramapo	237	211	226	674
8th	Joe Bocage, Becton	181	267	224	672
9th	Marc Solangon, B'field	189	237	244	670

Please e-mail any/all corrections to NorthJerseyBRG@gmail.com.