St. John the Baptist Foul Gives Win to Flyers Bowling

The bowling team (5-1) extended their winning streak to five Thursday afternoon at Babylon Lanes and handed St. John the Baptist their first loss of the season with a mere eight pin, 5-4 victory.

The last time the two met the Cougars had defeated Chaminade in the 2009-10 NSCHSAA semi-finals. According to Flyer coach Steven Toner, the Flyers were "out of that match in the first game." Thursday's meeting went differently with both teams spent the majority of the match neck and neck.

A sea of red shirts filled Babylon Lanes, 11 lined with yellow belonging to the vast Chaminade roster and nine of them trimmed with white belonged to the almost equally large St. John the Baptist team. Closely resembling uniforms, however, is where the similarities between the two squads ended.

Toner said he "tries to make sure the noise doesn't affect them," but both Flyer 'A' and 'B' teams came out of the gate visibly slower than usual. Junior and team captain Andrew Fenn bowled a disappointing 168 in game one after acquiring foot fouls on the first and fourth frames. The normally dangerous lefty freshman Nick Niles had a similarly lackluster 165. The 'A' team lost that game by 68 pins, but the recently hot Anthony Zangrillo racked up a 202 score to help the 'B' squad earn a 74 pin first game victory., helping the Flyers secure a six pin overall lead.

The sense of urgency was apparent. "Step it up! Let's go!" Toner told his players in a pep talk before the second game. An unruffled Andrew Fenn approached the first frame with complete confidence. "Don't worry," Fenn told the Flyer spectators, "I got this." Fenn ended up bowling a strike on his second frame. "There he is!" Toner said.

Most of the Flyers appeared to ignore the Cougars' background noise, but Nick Niles seemed to feed on it. His trademark hand-clap got louder and he even tossed in a few yells of his own as he rolled four strikes in a row to start and finish his second game with a mean 237.

Chaminade literally got its 'A' team back for game two with a tremendous 114 pins thanks to Niles' contribution, Fenn's respectable 192 score and sophomore Phil Loeschinger's season-high 241 score, rolling off four straight strikes to start.

The 'B' team unfortunately met stiff competition from St. John junior Kyle Durfee, junior Casey Gorden and senior Justin Figueroa. The Cougars improved drastically after game one and rolled a respective 225, 201 and 245. Junior Joe Bucaria managed to tack on a 234 for the Flyers, who ended up dropping game two by 102 pins.

Chaminade led St. John by only 18 pins after game two, prompting an intense game three battle. Bucaria carried the 'B' team with a 210, but Durfee's 219 and Gorden's 212 helped the Cougar 'B' squad hold on and clinch the game by 72 pins.

Niles was nearly perfect, starting the 'A' team off with nine strikes in a row, finishing with a season-high 266 game. Fenn returned to top form and bowled a 224 to give Chaminade an eight pin overall lead.

It all came down to Cougar Cyle Yambo in the final roll of the tenth frame. The junior bowled a very nasty 252 in game one and was shaping up to finish his third game in similar fashion. The strike he made would have given St. John the victory, but unfortunately his foot crossed the line and his roll was discounted. Yambo did his best to help his team with a 693 overall series, but Flyer victory was spelled by a difference of eight toppled pins.

"When people struggled," Toner said, "others stepped up for them."

The Flyers' will host St. Mary's on Jan. 4 before a rematch with St. John the Baptist a week later at Sheridan Lanes.