Archbishop Carroll’s boys bowling team defeated Archbishop Wood in a down-to-the-wire match on Dec. 12 at Thunderbird Lanes in Warminster.
The Pats took on Wood after a great win against Carroll’s rival, Bonner, and came out of the gate hot. Senior James Klusarits started the day off right by bowling three strikes in a row and racking up a score of 189 in the first match. Seniors Stephen Thomson, Marco Petroccia, and Patrick McGonigle all racked up scores above 150.
“We came out wanting to win,” Klusarits said. “This is our year.”
In the second game, seniors Jesse Ventre and McGonigle put up scores of 191 and 185, which helped offset lower scores rolled by the rest of the team. In Game 2, the boys racked up 810 pins compared to Woods 786 pins.
“After the first game, a couple of the boys took their foot off the pedal,” McGonigle said. “But me and Jesse were there to pick them up.”
Although going into the third game up two wins, the Pats had to be conscious of their pin count. Wood could win the last game and have more pins than Carroll. In such a scenario, the match would end in a tie rather than a much-needed victory for the Pats.
Thomson felt confident.
“I knew we were gonna win,” Thomson said. “We just needed to stay locked in for all three games rather than only two.”
Wood started off Game 3 with three players bowling three strikes in a row. This is when the Pats started paying more attention to the pin count.
“Going into the third game I felt really confident, until Wood started off the game that hot,” Ventre said. “Once we were down by almost 50 pins, the boys and I knew we needed to lock in.”
The Pats trailed the whole time during this game. However, they were not worried about this game in particular. They were worried about the total pin count.
“I started to see their total pin count increasing,” Klusarits said. “The boys and I were just focused on the total pin count, and not allowing Wood to split the win with us.”
With the win on the line, Klusarits bowled three strikes in the 10th frame to put the boys in a comfortable position to win the pin count. The boys ended up losing that game, but it didn’t matter because they won two games and the pin count.
The Pats moved to 2-1 on the season, and will now play their next game against St. Joseph’s Prep on Dec 14 at Thunderbird Lanes in Philadelphia.