By BILL SNIER
CANTON — Having to negotiate their way through two tournament levels to reach the OHSAA State Championships has been something new the past two years for the New Philadelphia and Dover bowling teams.
The two Tuscarawas County schools were sent to the Northeast District Stark Division I sectional after the number of Division I schools in the East District was reduced from the six or seven that used to compete only on the district level for one state berth in Zanesville.
“This is great. We’re not just going to district and battling for state,” New Philadelphia coach Jeff Locker said. “This is so nice. It just gives you momentum coming out of sectionals when you did well.”
The Quakers and Tornadoes did very well at Saturday’s Division I Stark boys sectional, finishing one-two at Eastbury Bowling Center to lead four teams into the Northeast District tournament at 10 a.m. Feb. 25 at Rebman Recreation in Lorain.
The Quakers, who shot a tournament-high 1,077 in Game 1 of the regular team games, were never out of the lead, finishing with 4,149 total pinfall and 85 pins ahead of the second-place Tornadoes (4,064). Both will be making their first Northeast District team appearances.
Joining them in Lorain will be Perry, which took third with 4,007, and defending sectional champion GlenOak, which claimed the fifth spot with 3,942. The Golden Eagles finished 61 pins ahead of unbeaten Federal League champion North Canton Hoover (3,881).
Wooster senior Sam Fleming shot a tourney-high 719 series to lead individual qualifiers for district. Other individual qualifiers included Hoover senior Chase Wensel (642), Lake junior Zachary Abbott (636) and Green senior Angelo Pallotta (625), who earned the final berth by 10 pins.
Teams bowled three regular games and six Baker System games with the top four teams and top four individuals not on those teams advancing to district.
BIG START FOR QUAKERS
“We’ve been bowling really well the past couple of weeks,” Locker said. “I know these guys. They group together, pick each other up. They are really smart and know how to bowl and make adjustments.
“Of course, you are going to have a low game once in a while. But these guys just came through and we came out hot, which is nice.”
Sophomore Jack Fair led the way with a 635 series and also shot 238 in the Game 1 surge as the Quakers had four players finish among the top 11 — senior Alex Knisley (629), freshman Nick Tedesco (521) and sophomore Landon Labiche (620). All three also shot 200 in Game 1.
“They were familiar with the shot after practicing (at Boulevard Lanes), and my kids really like it,” Locher said. “After the first game, they saw them change just a little bit, but they adjusted. They’re mature and smart on the lanes.”
The Quakers went 15-5 overall and 8-4 in the Ohio Cardinal Conference this season. Locker is looking forward to the next challenge.
“We’ll work on spares and on 10-pins because that’s my big thing during the season,” Locker said. “And we will work on our Bakers because we had some ups and downs there today.”
TORNADOES ALSO SURGE EARLY
Dover coach Steve Scherer says the extra tournament week gives his team one advantage.
“It gives us five more days to practice,” Scherer said, “but really it’s not that much of a difference.”
The Tornadoes shot 1,007 in Game 1 to stand second and never dropped below that the remainder of the tourney.
“All year long, all we talked about was going to state,” Scherer said. “We’ve worked hard, the kids have practiced hard. We still have a little ways to go, but they performed well today.”
Junior Jacob Shanklin led the Tornadoes with a 645, good for individual runner-up honors, and sophomore Zane Smith added 637. Sophomore Kris Miller also shot 588 for Dover.
Scherer’s team practiced the past two weeks on the shot at his home center, Wabash Lanes.
“It started out about the same, but there was a little more carry down and it spread out more than Wabash,” Scherer said. “But it was nothing that we couldn’t adjust for. All of the kids bowled well and our Bakers went about as expected.”
The Tornadoes led the tournament with 1,214 in Baker games, an average of 202.3.
LEFTIES ARE AID FOR PERRY
Perry sat fourth after Game 1 after shooting 902, but had 1,016 in Game 2 to jump to third and remained there.
First-year coach Don Sprout said having three lefties on his roster was a key, with junior Dylon Parsons shooting 210 and 212 his final two games for a 593 series. Senior Nick Harmon led the Panthers with a 636 series and senior Nick Goebeler added 596.
“Dylan really carried us in the second game. He has come a long way this year,” Sprout said. “But this was a total team effort. Everyone contributed.
“We were trying to get to first, but after that first game we knew we had to pull them up a big and move on to make the cut.”
The Panthers were second-high behind Dover in Bakers with 1,171, with a low game of 164.
“They were on fire in Bakers. We had four misses in a row in that 164 game before striking on the last four to get to that number,” Sprout said. “I’m just excited for these kids. They are all good kids and I’m so proud of them.”
NO SCOREBOARD WATCHING
While the other three teams knew where they stood, GlenOak coach Jossett Petrick was not paying attention, even though several fans tried to make her aware.
“I don’t normally look at scores, I just tell the bowlers to bowl the best you can and leave it all out there on the lanes,” Petrick said. “The standings will speak for themselves when it’s done.”
The Golden Eagles headed into the Baker round 49 pins ahead of Federal League champion and 2023 state qualifier Hoover.
“We didn’t have a bad three games … it was like we flat-lined,” Petrick said. “We didn’t take ourselves out of it, but we didn’t give ourselves any little reminder. When I found out we were in fourth, well, that made sense.
“We didn’t bowl great, but we didn’t bowl terrible.”
While the Eagles shot a low game of 911, Hoover had 883 in Game 1 and 878 in Game 3. A 998 in Game 2 took the Vikings into fourth for one game before they fell back to fifth after Game 3.
The Vikings never got above fifth again, falling further behind during the Baker games when they shot 1,122 to GlenOak’s 1,134.
“We did miss some spares today and that was probably the key to us not moving on,” Perry coach Chad Wensel said. “All year, we’ve been doing very well on spares, but today was not that day for some reason.
“We tried to stay in it, battle it out and tried to stay positive when we were down. But you never know in bowling. Chase advanced, but that’s not what we were looking for.”
Chase Wensel led the way for Hoover, but the next highest series was junior Cole Hapstak with 556.
GlenOak came in with the expectation of making the cut, but Petrick didn’t even remember that the Eagles had taken the sectional title last season.
“The way the season has been going for them, it’s been difficult to get all five to bowl good at the same time,” Petrick said. “So I wasn’t expecting a win, but to make the cut, and we accomplished that.”
Junior Dylan Petrick led the Golden Eagles with a 615 series and freshman Braxton Burns added 604. Junior Xzavier Gardener had 592 and junior Anthony Vacanti had 580 also for GlenOak.
“We had one bowler who struggled a little bit today, but the rest of the guys did their best to keep him upbeat,” Petrick said. “I would say that was the biggest thing. They just stick in it, hang in the game, raise up their teammates and make the best shots they can.”
Petrick said a few of her bowlers having “ah-hah” moments contributed to their recent surge over the past couple of weeks.
“They were able to get their games together and personally shot some big series. We had three different bowlers shoot 500 series while the others stayed steady around them,” Petrick said. “It was somebody different each time.”
But a 151 during the final Baker game had Petrick nervous.
“I didn’t know we were ahead of Hoover until the end. After that last Baker game, I figured we weren’t even in the cut,” Petrick said. “Our Bakers were kind of all over the board and I wasn’t sure if that last one took us out of it or not.”
But there was some satisfaction in topping Hoover for the final cut spot.
“That was pretty awesome. We lost both our matches to them,” Petrick said. “But when it counted, we beat them — and that’s the time to do it.”
NOTEBOOK: The field had 17 teams, with four 1,000 games being rolled during the team portion, including two by the Quakers. … The OHSAA sectional-district oil pattern was used for the event. … Dover had the high Baker game of 232. … Fleming had the high individual game of 267 in Game 2. Abbott rallied to earn a district spot with 219 and 231 his last two games after opening with 186. He is the first Lake player to reach district in 10 seasons. Pallotta made a similar move after a 188 in Game 1, shooting 236 in Game 3. … The Division I Stark girls sectional, with 16 teams in the field, is at 10 a.m. Sunday also at Eastbury. Tickets at $8 for adults and $5 for students are only available online at www.ohsaa.org/tickets.