A few weeks ago, Coach George Rooney told me via e-mail that he would put his South Burlington Strikers team up against any of his past bowling teams. After their performance in the Vermont High School Bowling state tournament on Saturday, maybe he was on to something.
The #6 seed picked up massive wins against defending state champion Brattleboro and Metro division champion Essex, heading to the final match after a furious run.
But that's where they ran into some Ghosts and their Cinderella story came to an abrupt end.
#1 Randolph continued their dominance in the state tournament, en route to their first state title in program history. Coach Karen Warner and her squad only lost 5 Bakers games in the regular season, going a perfect 9-0 in matches, combining the team and individual events.
The tournament kicked off with 3 first-round matches: White River Valley and Craftsbury went to a roll-off in game 4 of their match, but the Chargers would hold on and complete the sweep of the Wildcats. Fair Haven defeated Burlington in 6 games to advance while SB needed 5 games to beat #11 Hartford.
In the Quarterfinals, Randolph swept the Slaters, while Windsor and Essex needed 5 games to defeat St. Johnsbury and Craftsbury, respectively, and the Wolves knocked out the Bears in 6 to set up the Semifinals.
In the first semifinal, Windsor tried their hardest to come back from 3-0 down (including a 1-pin win in game 5), but Randolph was too strong in game 6 and advanced to the finals. The loss ended coach Steve Bly's tenure as head coach of the Yellow Jackets after 12 years and marked the final high school match for senior Avery Bean.
In the other one, Essex had things in hand with a 3-1 lead, but the Wolves/Strikers would continue to fight all the way to a game 7. In that seventh game, Essex would come up 1 pin short, sending SB to the title match for the first time in 3 years.
The final was all Randolph, though. Led by the brother-sister duo of Avery and Grace Stockwell, the Ghosts would put up scores of 169, 194, 215 and 202 to win the state title.
But make no mistake about it, South Burlington was the talk of the tournament and proved that anyone could make a run through this tournament, no matter which seed they are.
Notes:
Steve Bly was named coach of the year while his Windsor team was recognized with the sportsmanship award...Bly's final event as coach will be on March 9th, when he leads the top Vermont seniors against the best from New Hampshire in the twin state bowling classic in Claremont, NH...Along with Essex, Randolph (central) and Brattleboro (southern) also received awards as the top teams in their division.
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