Sports
Skippers’ Golf Edges Rebels
South Kingstown sophomore McKinley Slade had the low score on the day with a one-over 36, but it was North Kingstown whom was able to come away with the team victory.
WEST KINGSTON—The North Kingstown High golf team defeated South Kingstown High 156-159 Wednesday on a blustery day at Laurel Lanes Country Club.
“To come here and shoot 156 and to beat them is great,” North head coach Domenic Marcone said. “159 is a great score, if you can say every match I’m going to shoot 159 you would say ‘well, I’m going to be undefeated.’”
The Skippers took the match behind the play of their final pairing, sophomore Adam Southworth and junior Justin Pratt.
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“We kind of do that on purpose. We put those guys at the end because I want somebody who is going to have a chance to have a good score come in,” Marcone said. “They’re not actually number five and number six players.”
Senior Ryan Southworth shot a 40, sophomore Owen Heath a 39, senior Alex Kuczmarski a 47 and senior Madison Moreau a 44, giving North Kingstown a total of 170 with Adam Southworth and Pratt still to finish.
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In Rhode Island high school golf six golfers compete, with the top four scores counting towards the overall team score.
Given the way the Rebels had performed to that point, with a team score of 163, the Skippers would need Southworth and Pratt’s scores to replace Kuczmarski and Moreau’s totals to have a shot.
Fortunately for North its final pairing came through, with Southworth shooting a 40 and Pratt a team-low 37 to give them the win.
“I was just playing well, I had a lot of pars throughout the day,” Pratt said. “It was windy today and I hit a high shot, so if the winds in my face I don’t hit it as far. I just kind of kept it low today to get it on the green.”
South was led by sophomore McKinley Slade, who shot a one-over-par 36, while classmate Alex Armstrong finished with a 40.
“I played good today, just real consistent in the middle,” Slade said. “36 isn’t bad, but we lost so it doesn’t really matter anymore.”
Freshman Justin Smith shot a 41, senior Anthony Lovechio a 42 and both juniors Gina Bartolotta and Tom Higgins finished with 45s.
The Rebels (4-5 Southern Division, 4-5 overall) were saddled with the loss despite shooting below 160 for the first times this season.
“It was a real good day for us, but NK just played really well today and they beat us,” Slade said. “It’s good, because if we shoot 159 most of the time we’ll win.”
South will be back in action Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. at Weekapaug Golf Club when they take on Westerly High and The Prout School.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to get third in the division so we can get home field advantage for the three, four, five playoff match for states,” Slade said.
North (9-2 Southern, 10-3 overall) will finish out the regular season next week with a pair of match, the first on Monday at 3:30 p.m. at Richmond Country Club against Narragansett and Chariho High Schools.
“Chariho plays awesome at Richmond, so we’re going to have to play as good as we did today to beat them at Richmond on Monday,” Marcone said.
