By: Sean Moylan
Only two weeks ago, the Northern Burlington County Regional High School girls’ varsity bowling beat Pemberton to earn a piece of the Liberty Division title. Then, in last Wednesday’s (February 18th) BCSL Open, those two giants of South Jersey squared off again. Only this time, Pemberton came out on top, 2483-2413.
For all intents and purposes, it was a two-way battle because the third place finisher, Rancocas Valley, finished over 150 pins behind the Greyhounds.
"The best bowler for the girls was Jamie Weeks," added NBC head coach Bruce Wandling. Weeks rolled a 527 series, which was fourth best in the tournament. In recent weeks, Weeks has bowled very well for NBC.
The NBC boys had yet to taste defeat when they entered the big tournament at the Maple Bowl, one of their favorite stomping grounds.
However, there was a long list of teams looking to avenge regular season losses or ties to NBC. Maple Shade and Pemberton topped that list. Consequently, when NBC got off to a slow start, those clubs were ready to pounce. In the end, Maple Shade (2,800) beat the third-place Greyhounds by 64 pins (NBC’s score was 2,736). However, in true NBC style, the Greyhounds made it interesting at the end.
"We didn’t do well in the first two games. Then we did well in the last game. In the last game we bowled well over 900," noted Coach Wandling.
NBC’s Bill Moore bowled so well that he had the third best series in the Open with a 643 and the fifth highest game with a 235. Moore has had a terrific year.
But then again, Northern Burlington’s big five of Billy Ferenc, Moore, Anthony Hambrick, Donny Burgess and Matt Yoak have been great all year. They had to be to go 15-0-2. Someone once said "you can’t win ’em all." However, NBC sure came close.
