BY TIM MORRIS
Staff Writer
Eric LeFante closed the book on his scholastic career at Colts Neck by writing another championship chapter.
The Cougar senior won his final high school tournament, the Freehold Regional District championship, on May 31 at the par-71 Eagle Oaks Golf Club in Howell, in style. He birdied the 18th hole to secure a two-stroke victory over Manalapan’s Matt Quigley, 74-76.
Until LeFante rolled in his 15-footer, the District championship was in question. It didn’t start out that way, with the defending champion LeFante in charge after the front nine. Then, things turned around.
“He [Quigley] birdied three in a row on the back nine, and that caught my attention,” said LeFante.
Through 15 holes, the Braves’ senior was tied with LeFante. The Cougar took a one-stroke lead with a par on the 16th, while Quigley bogeyed. It stayed that way through 17 with LeFante teeing off on the par-5 18th with that one-stroke lead. Both golfers laid up on the par 5. Lefante put his wedge within 15 feet of the cup, but Quigley was inside him with a good birdie chance. If he cashed in on it, Quigley could force a playoff.
But LeFante rolled in his 15-footer to settle the matter and capture his second straight District title, and the Jim Nantz Trophy that goes to the individual winner. Nantz, CBS’s lead sports announcer, is responsible for starting the District tournament when he was playing golf for Marlboro.
“I hung in there and hit some good shots,” said LeFante, who earlier this year won a record third straight Monmouth County Championship and his first Central/South Jersey state sectional crown. “I played pretty good. It was a nice way to finish my high school career.”
While LeFante was adding to his hefty high school résumé, Quigley was helping Manalapan win its second District championship in the last three years. The Braves were seven strokes clear of the field with a score of 343. Colts Neck was second at 350.
The Eagle Oaks course played exceptionally challenging. The golfers played from the Blue tees, adding distance to the course, and the rough was all but unmanageable. It was an automatic bogey if one’s tee shot or iron strayed wayward.
That was enough to make a difficult course all the more treacherous. Only eight golfers broke 90, with LeFante and Manalapan’s Quigley (76) and Matt Kronisch (79) the only golfers under 80.
For the first time, the District held an accompanying girls championship, which was played over nine holes. Colts Neck’s Vanessa Tozcano had the fortune of being the first girls champion. Her 49, when stacked up to the difficulty the course was playing, was a very strong round and put her seven strokes up on Manalapan’s Samantha Breuer. Cougar teammate Arianna Hatchett was third (59).
Manalapan rode Quigley’s 76 and Matt Kronisch’s 79 to their championship. They finished second and third.
For the senior-laden Braves, it was a wonderful way to close out a season and the career of its four 12th-graders. As the defending co-champions in A North, the Braves were picked to be the team to beat because of their experience, but it was a youthful Howell team that came of age before everyone’s eyes that ran off with the public school’s title.
That left the District title as the last championship on Manalapan’s plate, one last opportunity for vindication, and the Braves devoured it, according to coach John Natoli.
“We had a lot of potential, but we couldn’t get all five to shoot well at the same time,” he said of the 2005 dual meet season. “The kids came up big in the last tournament.
“It’s always good for bragging rights, and a nice way to end the season,” he added.
Led by LeFante, the Cougars were second, while Marlboro, led by Mike Desero, who was sixth (85), was third.