HoVal places third at county tournament

Golf

By: John E. Powers
   Just at the right time — just when the home stretch of its season is about to start — the Hopewell Valley Central High School golf team is playing its best.
   The Bulldogs, who are 12-1 in match play, placed an impressive third at this past Monday’s Mercer County Tournament at Mountain View Golf Course in West Trenton. Lawrence won the team title with 317 strokes followed by West Windsor-Plainsboro South with 329 and Hopewell Valley third with 330.
   "We’re winning, but up until this point, I don’t think we had played that well," Hopewell Valley coach Skip Johnson said. "But now we’re starting to get it together. There were some very good prep teams there. Pennington, Princeton Day School and Hun were there. The only one not there was Lawrenceville Prep. There were 14 schools, so placing third was pretty impressive, and we were on stroke out of second. I felt pretty good about it."
   Junior Greg Carver led the Bulldogs with an 81, not bad considering six players led the field with a 79. The six-player playoff was won by Lawrence’s Steve Marencik, who beat Pennington’s Jess Morrison. Three Lawrence players made the playoff, but it could have been different if some shots had fallen for Carver.
   "I think Greg (Carver) felt he left a couple shots out there," Johnson said. "When you talk about a couple of shots here, a couple of shots there, you’re talking about Greg shooting a 78 or 79."
   Senior Brian Orland shot an outstanding 37 on the front nine, but faded on the back with a 47.
   "If he (Orland) had shot a 42 on the back, he would have won it," Johnson said. "He just had a couple of bad holes. The rough was really deep, and we lost a lot of balls. It was the same for everybody."
   Senior Brandon Rust had an 82, senior Matt Castagnia shot an 84, and senior Andrew Varhley scored a 90. The top four scorers were counted.
   The Bulldogs had a very successful match-play week, beating Princeton 200-221 at Springdale Golf Course in Princeton on Monday. Varhley had a 37, Rust shot a 39, Carver had a 41, Castagna shot a 41 and Ben Bershad notched a 42. The Bulldogs had a strong home effort last Thursday —- a 211-234 win over Pennington at Hopewell Valley Golf Club. They had beaten Hamilton 199-305 Wednesday.
   Carver had a top score of 37, Varhley had a 39, Rust shot a 43, Orland tallied a 35 and Joe Tirpak notched a 47 in the win over Pennington.
   Carver had a 37, Rust shot a 39, Varhley tallied a 38, Matt Betz shot a 42 and Bershad came it at 43 against at Cream Ridge, as the Bulldogs routed Hamilton.
   The Bulldogs are now 10-1 in the Colonial Valley Conference.
   "I felt bad for the Hamilton West coach because they were missing three of their starters," Johnson said.
   Hopewell Valley was scheduled to play Hightstown today, spend part of Friday practicing at Centerton Golf Course in Elmer in South Jersey then return Monday morning to the same course to compete in the Group II state tournament.
   "There are some pretty good teams down the Shore," Johnson said. "But we’re capable of doing something down there."