12/11/10 A creature is stirring...

After a long summer's nap, The Messenger is back on the scene, ready for the 2010-11 season of varsity bowling in New Jersey. Today, he is at Parkway Lanes in Elmwood Park for the 9th annual FDU Holiday Team Challenge.

Since TM can't always get down to Central Jersey for season-opening tournaments (Bishop Ahr, et al), this constitutes his first major tournament of the year: 36 teams (25 boys, 11 girls), 6-game qualifying (3 traditional games, 3 Baker games), playoff round to follow (top 8 boys teams advance, top 6 on the girls' side). It's a long day -- and apparently necessitates the use of many parentheses -- but always fun, and it's good to get an early look at some of the local and not-so-local teams.

There's a lot going on, so to make this easy, we'll provide a live blog with game-by-game updates. Enjoy...

STANDINGS AFTER GAME 1:
BOYS: 1. Pascack Valley 985; 2. Howell 972; 3. Bergen Catholic 950; 4. Pascack Hills 925; T-5. Clifton and Ridgewood 918.
GIRLS: 1. Immaculate Heart 948; 2. Howell 853; 3. Ridgewood 768; 4. Holy Angels 760; 5. Fair Lawn 726.
HIGH GAMES SO FAR: (Boys) Rich Gutches, Passaic Tech, 268; (Girls) Sonja Shirak, Clifton, 255.

STANDINGS AFTER GAME 2:
BOYS: 1. Howell 2,066; 2. Pascack Valley 1,990; 3. Wallkill Valley 1,860; 4. Ramapo 1,850; 5. Bergen Catholic 1,843; 6. Pascack Hills 1,835.
GIRLS: 1. IHA 1,797; 2. Howell 1,757; 3. Ridgewood 1,600; 4. Holy Angels 1,576; 5. Bergen Tech 1,455; 6. Clifton 1,361.
NEW HIGH GAME: (Boys) Brian O'Flaherty, Pascack Valley, 279.

STANDINGS AFTER GAME 3:
Change of plans! The final results are in, so we'll just get right to 'em:

BOYS PLAYOFF QUALIFIERS (Seed/team):
1. Pascack Valley 3,748
2. Howell 3,651
3. Bergen Catholic 3,431
4. Clifton 3,357
5. Pascack Hills 3,339
6. Ramapo 3,305
7. Bergenfield 3,289
8. Wallkill Valley 3,280

So the first-round tournament match-ups are: (1) Pascack Valley vs. (8) Wallkill Valley... (2) Howell vs. (7) Bergenfield... (3) Bergen Catholic vs. (6) Ramapo... (4) Clifton vs. (5) Pascack Hills.

GIRLS PLAYOFF QUALIFIERS:
1. IHA 3,121
2. Howell 3,107
3. Ridgewood 2,866
4. Holy Angels 2,796
5. Bergen Tech 2,749
6. Hackensack 2,519

First-round match-ups: (3) Ridgewood vs. (6) Hackensack... (4) Holy Angels vs. (5) Bergen Tech -- it's like an old-time NNJIL showdown, it is -- byes for (1) IHA and (2) Howell.

BOYS ALL-STAR TEAM (Top 5 scores of qualifying round):
Rich Gutches (Passaic Tech), 779 *New tournament record!
Brian O'Flaherty (Pascack Valley), 772
Joey Farinelli (Pascack Valley), 747
Frank Vitarelle (Howell), 729
Brian DiMarco (Bergenfield), 722

GIRLS ALL-STAR TEAM:
Sonja Shirak (Clifton), 714
Colleen Blake (IHA), 645
Nicole Linder (IHA), 595
Colette Malyack (DePaul), 591
Chasitie Ammacher (Wallkill Valley), 589

POINT OF ORDER: A couple of asides while we're on lunch break... first, despite the fact that The Messenger has been covering H.S. bowling in these parts for a decade, he always forgets about the incoming freshmen (bowlers as well as fans). So, for the benefit of those, two things:

(A) Why does The Official Reporter of the NJBB go by the handle "The Messenger"? Well, a messenger pin is one that caroms off the sidewall, goes all the way back across the lane and knocks out a pin that otherwise wouldn't have gone down. For our purposes, TM is here to do just that: provide wall-to-wall coverage of his favorite sport (rimshot? anyone?... please?)

(B) Since we're about to bowl Baker games for the tournament round, here is a brief refresher for the freshmen (a re-frosh-er, perhaps?) as to how they work: the 5 bowlers in a team's lineup will combine to bowl a single game. The example given in today's program: if the lineup goes 1. Lauren Leadoff, 2. Sarah Second, 3. Theresa Third, 4. Felicia Fourth and 5. Annie Anchor, then Lauren will bowl frames 1 & 6, Sarah gets 2 & 7, Theresa gets 3 & 8, Felicia 4 & 9, Annie 5 & 10. The anchor is typically the team's best bowler and/or is a Grace Under Pressure type. (P.S. This tournament is run by the FDU women's team, hence the female names. Personally, I'd have named the anchor Grace... on the other hand, if you've ever seen Anne of Green Gables [don't ask], you know that Annie can be one tough cookie, so I guess it works.

END POINT OF ORDER.

QUARTERFINAL RESULTS (From here on out, we play best 2-of-3 Baker game series)
BOYS:
(8) Wallkill Valley def. (1) Clifton, 2-0
(4) Clifton def. (5) Pascack Hills, 2-1
(3) Bergen Catholic def. (6) Ramapo, 2-1
(2) Howell def. (7) Bergenfield, 2-0

GIRLS:
(5) Bergen Tech def. (4) Holy Angels, 2-1
(3) Ridgewood def. (6) Hackensack, 2-0

SEMIFINAL RESULTS
BOYS:
(8) Wallkill Valley def. (4) Clifton, 2-1
(2) Howell def. (3) Bergen Catholic, 2-1

Once again, the boys championship trophy will have a long ride home from Parkway Lanes... Howell is back in the finals as defending champ.

GIRLS:
(1) IHA def. (5) Bergen Tech, 2-0
(2) Howell def. (3) Ridgewood, 2-1

The Maroons gave Howell a run for its money, but we will have a straight rematch of the 2009 finals in the girls bracket.

THE FINALS...
***BOYS CHAMPION: WALLKILL VALLEY***
The 8th-seeded Rangers end up winning the tournament, defeating No. 2 Howell in the finals, 2-1 (166-156, 143-188, 192-180). The WV lineup: freshman Chasitie Ammacher, senior Ed Davenport, senior Jacob Boone, senior Matt Coombs and junior Larry Tufaro. Late in the decisive game, Boone and Coombs struck back-to-back before Tufaro added two more (hambone!) to seal the victory.

***GIRLS CHAMPION: HOWELL***
If you think this sounds like a broken record, not so... in last year's finals, Howell was the No. 1 seed and IHA was the No. 2. This time, seeds reversed, but outcome the same, the Rebels beat the Blue Eagles, 2-1 (124-165, 172-157, 170-154). That's right in both the semifinals and finals, Howell lost the first game and came back to win the series, securing its 4th straight title. Nugget of note: The Rebels have beaten IHA in the finals 3 of the 4 times, their other title came against Holy Angels in 2008. The Howell lineup: senior Ashley Buck, sophomore Jamie Kelly, junior Kendall Patterson, senior Allison Savoye and junior Shanna Kelly.

And now, because he's been here for 6-1/2 hours and Parkway's WiFi is starting to go on the fritz, The Messenger will sign off. We'll try to post additional scores and such when (and if) TM gets to check his e-mail again. Congrats to the champs, and as always:

See you on the other side...
-TM

(1/10/09) North Jersey Singles Classic @ Parkway Lanes

For all the snow that was forecast, a pretty decent crowd showed up. Boys qualifying round took place in the morning, girls started around lunch time. Had a tough time keeping track of all the boys since there were well over 100 entries, but I did manage to catch a few of the girls games. Lauren Rhein of IHA may have had the best qualifying-round game I saw: 8-spare, 9 strikes in a row, 9-spare to finish off a 279.

The boys roll-offs actually began right after lunch, while girls qualifying was still going on. Good job by Mike LoPresti and his FDU girls team by keeping things moving. Although I think only 1 of his bowlers was actually able to make it out to help because of the weather, and on top of that, the poor girl's computer crashed, so they had to do everything by hand. Yikes. But I thank them for all their help.

As you can tell by the scores, the boys Round of 16 was insane. The two top qualifiers from the morning, Pompton Lakes' Billy Jack (234-252-254—740) and North Arlington's Matt Priore (279-212-245—736), both rolled monster games and missed the final four, mainly because the snow forced them to shorten the playoffs by one round. I suspect both will be heard from again in their respective county tournaments.

In the boys finals, Jose Cruz of Union City beat Wood-Ridge lefty Alex Prell, 204-183. Prell looked smooth all day, rolling solid deuces up until his very last game. Cruz was one of 4 Soaring Eagles (I love that nickname, BTW) to reach the roll-offs, and even though I don't really cover much of Hudson County, I've now seen UC twice, between the Holiday Challenge in December and the Singles Classic. If they can score down at Carolier like they do up here, they'll be dangerous come February.

The top girls in the Round of 16 put up some great numbers as well. North Arlington's Ashley Johnson opened with 6 straight strikes before convertine a 7-9 spare in the 7th, and Ridgewood's Kim Burdi started off with a 5-bagger. IHA sophomore Nicole Linder was one of the last to finish up and just edged out her teammate Vicki Grimshaw for the last semifinal spot -- otherwise, we would have had three southpaws in the semis (Burdi, Grimshaw and High Tech's Jolisa Aquino), and as a fellow left-hander, I always make a point of pointing out such things.

Anyway, Aquino opened the semis with a 5X to move into the finals. Linder had some big finishes all afternoon, striking out in the 10th at least once or twice (wish I had written it down). Linder wound up winning, 218-204, and according her coach Lynn Gansey, it was only the second time she'd ever bowled at Parkway. Good stuff.
I'd have to say it was worth it for those who braved the snow, which was barely up to an inch at the end of the tournament - not nearly enough to prevent a stop at Hank's Franks on my way home. Next up: the Bergen County Girls Tournament, Saturday at Bowler City. Will try to get a preview up before Friday's end.

BOYS - ROLL-OFF QUALIFIERS

1. Billy Jack, Pompton Lakes 740; 2. Matt Priore, North Arlington 736; 3. Chris Auld, Fair Lawn 736; 4. Alex Prell, Wood-Ridge 734; 5. Omar Espinal, Union City 732; 6. Jose Cruz, Union City 725; 7. Rob Andresen, Ramapo 699; 8. Ryan Cauwels, Fair Lawn 696; 9. Sean Carmody, Ridgefield Park 692; 10. Justin Hussong, Old Tappan 669; 11. Pavel Brutman, Fair Lawn 665; 12. Vincent Buono, Passaic 663; 13. Steven Patchen, Bergen Tech 661; 14. Joe Farinelli, Pascack Valley 657; 15. Nick Corvelli, Bergen Catholic 656; 16. Dylan Caruso, Secaucus 655; 17. Mike Carr, Ramapo 653; 18. Adam Sanchez, Union City 648; 19. Jake Romba, Fort Lee 634; 20. Pat Kiernan, Old Tappan 629; 21. Joe Burgos, Union City 625; 22. DJ Adderly, North Bergen 625; 23. Richard Ortiz, High Tech 624; 24. Brian Galbraith, Pascack Hills 623; 25. Nick Keim, Ridgefield Park 623; 26. Mike Parsons, Bergen Catholic 621; 27. Jean Baez, Union City 621; 28. Mark Robinson, Leonia 617; 29. John Sandberg, Fair Lawn 616; 30. Robinson Rodriguez, Passaic 613; 31. Matt Lajoie, New Milford 613; 32. Andrew Schrenzel, New Milford 611; 33. David Rodenzo, Leonia 609; 34. Brian Perez, High Tech 608; 35. Kyle Orr, Pascack Valley 608; 36. Nick Roman, Wood-Ridge 595.

BOYS ROUND OF 36: 1. Prell, 258; 2. Caruso, 249; 3. Cauwels, 238; 4. Priore, 236; 5. Carmody, 233; 6. Buono, 232; 7. Espinal, 213; 8. Roman, 212; 9. Corvelli, 211; 10. Cruz, 210; 11. Kiernan, 209; 12. Jack, 204; 13. Parsons, 202; 14. Romba, 199; 15. Brutman, 190; 16. Perez, 184; 17. Auld, 180; 18. Patchen, 179; 19. Robinson, 179; 20. Andresen, 178; 21. Galbraith, 178; 22. Adderly, 176; 23. Ortiz, 168; 24. Hussong, 167; 25. Schrenzel, 167; 26. Sanchez, 165; 27. Rodenzo, 165; 28. Burgos, 164; 29. Baez, 161; 30. Sandberg, 158; 31. Carr, 156; 32. Keim, 156; 33. Lajoie, 153; 34. Orr, 151; 35. Farinelli, 141; 36. Rodriguez, 130.

BOYS ROUND OF 16: 1. Carmody, 267; 2. Caruso, 246; 3. Prell, 236; 4. Cruz, 236; 5. Priore, 234; 6. Jack, 230; 7. Buono, 227; 8. Roman, 225; 9. Romba, 219; 10. Kiernan, 216; 11. Espinal, 215; 12. Cauwels, 199; 13. Parsons, 190; 14. Perez, 190; 15. Corvelli, 188; 16. Brutman, 144. BOYS SEMIFINALS: 1. Prell, 239; 2. Cruz, 226; 3. Caruso, 196; 4. Carmody, 160. BOYS FINALS: Jose Cruz 204, Alex Prell 183.

GIRLS - ROLL-OFF QUALIFIERS

1. Lauren Rhein, IHA 683; 2. Jen Houseward, Manchester 665; 3. Brianna Carlo, Dumont 637; 4. Sonja Shirak, Clifton 631; 5. Celine O'Shea, Leonia 626; 6. Brittany Kniesler, Bergenfield 626; 7. Victoria Grimshaw, IHA 621; 8. Nicole Linder, IHA 610; 9. Colleen Blake, IHA 603; 10. Erika Nedwell, High Tech 589; 11. Ashley Johnson, North Arlington 589; 12. Jolisa Aquino, High Tech 570; 13. Jessica Ragone, Leonia 562; 14. Danielle Gelok, Pompton Lakes 560; 15. Olivia Yang, Holy Angels 559; 16. Kim Burdi, Ridgewood 545.

GIRLS ROUND OF 16: 1. Johnson, 242; 2. Aquino, 225; 3. Linder, 214; 4. Burdi, 211; 5. Grimshaw, 206; 6. Kniesler, 192; 7. Gelok, 192; 8. Carlo, 190; 9. Shirak, 187; 10. Rhein, 181; 11. Nedwell, 162; 12. O'Shea, 150; 13. Yang, 149; 14. Ragone, 147; 15. Blake, 139; 16. Houseward, 130. GIRLS SEMIFINALS: 1. Aquino, 234; 2. Linder, 198; 3. Johnson, 157; 4. Burdi, 157. GIRLS FINALS: Nicole Linder 218, Jolisa Aquino 204.

HIGH GAMES (BOYS): Matt Priore, Rob Andresen and Vincent Buono, 279; Chris Auld, 278; Robinson Rodriguez, 276; Joe Farinelli, 275; Alex Prell, 269. HIGH GAMES (GIRLS): Lauren Rhein, 279; Jen Houseward, 277; Celine O'Shea, 257; Jolisa Aquino, 252; Colleen Blake and Brittany Kniesler, 243.

Cheers,

--North Jersey Bowling... Reporter... Guy