First Posted: 1/14/2015
You will frequently hear an announcer or a sports writer say, “It was a game (or a match) well worth the price of admission!”
At risk of hyperbole, this past Saturday at Pla-Mor Lanes in Coldwater may have been the very epitome of that standard.
Consider the following match scores: Van Wert 2,539, St. Marys 2,516 – 23 pins; St Henry 2,836,Ottawa Glandorf 2,769 – 67 pins; Temple Christian 1,826, Marion Local 1,748 – 78 pins; and perhaps most notably Wapak in a comeback over Versailles by 12 pins 2,806 – 2,794.
The Wapak victory was the result of total pinfall during the last three baker games. Had that same match been rolled this Saturday during a double shift Versailles would have earned the victory as only two baker games would have been rolled.
Lima Central Catholic was one team that avoided the white knuckler type games as the Thunderbirds dominated Parkway 2,518 – 1,843. Ian Friesner did not factor in with the big scorers this week but his consistent 217 – 207 set was very impressive.
Coldwater also claimed a big win over Celina 2,827 – 2,393 in one of the many boarder wars that fans see weekly in this conference.
Cory Whitacre of Coldwater grabbed game medalist honors with a 244 as the 250 – 270 games often disappear in Coldwater. Brandon Kennard of Wapak was next up with a 238 game and Trey Buhler of St Henry and Blake Knueve of Wapak were a notch behind at 237. Zach Marshall of Versailles rolled a 233 to round out the 230 and above crew.
The season is now just a little beyond the halfway mark with Wapak seemingly rooted into the number one slot in the standings at 8-0. The Redskins are two games up in the loss column on the next five teams in the conference.
Coldwater, St Henry, LCC, O-G and Versailles each have the two losses. It will be a double shift for the conference this week at St Marys starting at 9:45 a.m. LCC will roll the host school at 12:30 p.m. and St Henry at 3 pm.
The Wapak girls continued to hold onto first place in the conference with a record of 7-0. The very young Cavaliers are 7–1 and Versailles stands at 5–1. Wapak will take on Marion Local on their home lanes this Saturday morning at 9:45 and Coldwater will be at Astro as well and be matched against Minster at the same time. The Versailles girls will avoid a bus ride to Wapak and will make up next Thursday at 5:30 on their home lanes as scheduling continues to get strange in the WOHSBC.
In league play in Celina on Saturday, Wapak stepped on Temple Christian 2,435–1,868 and Coldwater turned back New Bremen 2,533–2,088. Versailles rolled well with a 2,357 and was awarded the win when Russia failed to appear.
LCC had the bye for that weekend.
It was Jackie Bruns and not Amanda Stachler that paced Parkway on Saturday, in fact she topped all bowlers for game honors with a 253. Stachler did support her teammate with a solid 209 game however.
The balance of the higher scores were more in keeping with Stachler however. Hannah Niekamp of Versailles did roll a 212 – 193 set followed by Bela Godinho (210), Megan Ward of Versailles and Kira Irick at 203.
We are now one week from the sold-out Pioneer Classic at Westgate Lanes here in Lima and then just a quick step or two to the back to back trips of the conference into the Limaland for the two season-ending matches at Westgate and then 20th Century Lanes.
In other words you will have three chances right here in Lima to see some of the better bowlers and teams in the state of Ohio.
It all starts at 10 a.m. on Martin Luther King Day, Jan. 19. There will be some very good teams on hand on that day. Stop out and enjoy a well run tournament by BJ McPheron and the crew from Temple.
