SP-F Varsity Bowling Team Advances to Tournament of Champions

With fans crowded around lanes 23 and 24, the Scotch Plains-Fanwood High varsity bowling team faced not only the pressure of going head to head against the defending sectional champs, but also their poor start in the third game when they left a handful of open frames.

In most cases, that spells disaster, but one thing has been consistent about this team the entire season. They don't rattle and they're resilient, and Saturday in the state sectional tournament, those qualities helped the Raiders stun Jefferson with a rousing comeback in the final two frames, allowing them to take the second of two spots and advance to next week's Tournament of Champions.

"Wow! I'm absolutely speechless right now," said senior Peter Citera. "Going into this match today, we knew Jefferson was one of the better teams in the state; they're in the top 20, we're not. We just had to keep pace with them. It was very interesting at the end, a lot of action, a lot of energy in the 10^th frame of the last game. It's my senior year. I couldn't ask for more."

"I'm really happy for the kids," added head coach James Mason. "We had a big disappointment in the county finals where we just lost by 22 pins. Down by 41 here, they just showed their mettle. They're a strong bunch of kids and when the chips were down, they did what they had to do."

The Raiders got off to a great start, reaching 1,000 pins in the opening game to prove they were in it to win it. Anchor Mike Tufaro rolled a team-high 259 while Citera finished with a 237 to lead the way.

"It feels pretty good," Tufaro said. "We knew we were down by 41 pins and so we had to bowl big in the last game. In the 9^th frame, we took a seven pin lead, but I realized we needed to beat them by a fair amount, so we picked it up. The 10^th frame was huge. We had three guys strike out. We redeemed ourselves."

The consistent Nick Stawicki rolled a 201-238-191 for a 630 series, and his steady presence is a big reason that SP-F is moving on. Katarina Nier rolled a 524 series with a high of 191 in game two, while Greg Budis showed his mettle with a key 182 in the third game after bowling below his average in the first two.  

Tufaro, who bowled a perfect game earlier this season, had admittedly not been bowling his best of late, but did he ever pick a perfect time to find his stride, finishing with a 698 series, which tied him for third highest series of all bowlers and qualified him for the individual championships next Wednesday.

"I was close to qualifying last year," he said. "What really sets the pace for me is my first game. I came out and shot a 259. Qualifying is something I really wanted to do since the end of the season. I said it in one of the first interviews that I wanted to qualify for the individual state finals and the team state finals and we did both. I'm real happy."

Peter Citera will also make the trip to Carolier Lanes for Wednesday's 12:30 start with his teammate, as he also qualified for a shot at individual glory, making the cut with a 654 series. It's impressive because only nine bowlers advanced to the finals.

"The Tournament of Champions is going to be absolutely ridiculous, with all the teams in the state," Citera said.  "I shot great. Everyone did their part. We picked each other up in the most important, critical moments of the game and I'm just ecstatic right now. If any team could do it, it would be us. It's fun to bowl with each other. We'll have these memories for a lifetime to come."

The entire squad, meanwhile, will head to East Brunswick next Saturday for the team finals, which begin at 9:30 a.m. It has turned out to be another feather in the cap of the Union County Tournament runner-ups.

"I think we can do very well there," Mason said. "They've shown that they have the potential to really score high. If we go down and everybody has a pretty good day, I think we'll do real well."