Last week in Rutland, Brattleboro's Thomas Bell faced off against Essex's Orion Casavant in the individual tournament in a hotly contested match. It came down to the final frame where Casavant knocked off the state's best bowler by 4 pins en route to a 4th place finish. Coach Will Bassett said that was more than enough motivation for him to help his team go for the state title.
Sunday, at SpareTime in Colchester, it came down to Bell and Casavant in the 10th frame in game 6 of the title match between the Colonels and Hornets. This time, it was Casavant who couldn't finish a spare attempt and gave Brattleboro its first Vermont high school bowling state championship, winning 4 games to 2.
This may go down as one of the best finals in the sport's short history. Every time it looked like Brattleboro would pull away, the Hornet bowlers would come back and make it a game. The teams split the first four games, with game 3 being decided on a tiebreaker. In game 5, Essex were starting to feel the pressure of the moment and ultimately got tired, Hornets coach Tom Preska said after the match. That was where the Colonels struck, taking the last 2 games 170-154 and 153-133 to clinch.
It was the second year in a row that Brattleboro made the final, losing to Fair Haven last year in Barre. They made certain a repeat wasn't going to happen in the Quarterfinals by beating the Slaters 4 games to 2. That was followed up by another 4-2 win against four-seed Burlington in the semifinals, despite the Seahorses converting seven strikes in a row in game 3. Essex's run to the finals was a bit smoother, defeating South Burlington and Windsor in 5-game series apiece.
Other quarterfinal action saw newcomer Craftsbury (led by coach and AD Connor Bean) take Windsor to the limit in 5 games, including a tie in game 4 leading to a two-lane roll off. Burlington and Randolph went 6 games in an exciting 4-5 matchup.
Fair Haven, led by individual champion Josh Kennedy, and South Burlington swept Hartford and White River Valley, respectively, in the play-in round earlier in the day.
