By: Redd E. Patrick
The Monroe High School golf program is on the rise.
A struggling program just three years ago, coach Pete Lopresti’s squad is starting to become quite established.
A year ago, the Falcons finished 15-1 and won the Blue Division title of the Greater Middlesex Conference.
Despite losing two keys players from last year, including its No. 1, Monroe finished 2004 with a 14-3 mark, giving the program a 29-4 record over the past two seasons. With only one senior in the rotation – Doug Kunigonis – the future looks bright as well.
On Tuesday, the Falcons improved to 14-3 by beating Woodbridge 182-193 at the Tamarack Golf Course in a preliminary-round match of the GMC Tournament. By winning, the Falcons advanced to the GMC Tournament Championship, which took place Thursday at Tamarack after press time.
"We’ve been playing real well over the last seven matches or so," LoPresti said. "We didn’t play well at all against Woodbridge, but we played well enough to win. In that situation, that’s all that really matters so we can have a crack at the overall tournament."
Junior Doug Rohrig led the way against Woodbridge with a 43. Freshman Grant Herring shot a 44, sophomore Bryan Bailey 45 and Kunigonis 50.
On Monday, May 17, the Falcons dropped a heartbreaking 170-172 match to rival South River. Monroe, which lost to South River early in the season by nine strokes at home at the Forsgate Country Club, needed to win that match to share a tie of the Blue Division title. South River went on to win en route to an undefeated season.
"South River is an excellent team," LoPresti said. "All we wanted was an opportunity. We got that and our kids played well. It was really a great match. It came down to the final golfer. In fact, we ended up using the score from our fifth man, Evan Jones (freshman), while South River used the score from its sixth man.
"We wanted that to get a share of the division, but I’m still proud of the kids and the way they played."
Struggling with inconsistency early on, the Falcons really turned it on midway through the season.
"We didn’t really start playing well until midway through the season," LoPresti said. "Bailey and Rohrig really came on strong. They were shooting 39s on given days at one point. And Kunigonis was really consistent. He didn’t have a lot of low rounds, but he didn’t have many high rounds either.
"We had another great season."
