Tigers Unleash Fury Against Talbots
The Tigers returned home this week to host our neighbors to the east, the Hampton Talbots. This was no walk in the (Perry) park for the Hampton boys. North Allegheny easily exterminated any threat that Hampton could assemble. If they wanted to win, they would have to learn how to keep up with the big dogs.
As he so often does, senior Nate Redondo kicked the match off with a strike. Quickly joining the dog fight was junior Luca Thomas, senior Willie Harris, and senior Connor Peoples. Four out of the five bowlers started their respective games with a strike. Redondo quickly doubled his as did Peoples. Senior Cole Scott was the first Tiger to get a on a roll. He threw a hambone in frames 5-8 and then followed those 4 strikes with a pair of strikes in the 10th frame: throwing 6 strikes in 6 frames of bowling. Like Scott, Thomas quickly tracked down his striking form throwing 6 consecutive strikes, resulting in a wild turkey. Peoples also joined in the hunt with his hambone late in the game. For the first time this season, the Tigers surpassed the 1000-pin threshold. Leading the pack was Thomas’ 236, Peoples’ 232, Scott’s 213, and Redondo’s 206. The first game went to NA 1053-339.
The head-to-head matchup for the top bowler of the day was a dogfight between Thomas and Peoples. Thomas struck first in Game 2, but Peoples answered him right back. Peoples then capitalized and extended his strikes to a turkey. Thomas then added a turkey, himself. Peoples regained the advantage with his hambone in frames 8, 9, and 10. After the skirmish, Peoples had the highest game 2 score, tying Thomas’ score in Game 1, 236 pins. Thomas finished the second game with a 214. Joining in the game 2 wrangle was junior Andrew Roth. His substitution and double strikes in frames 8 and 9 helped NA reach 937 pins. North Allegheny won the game 937-276. All 5 Tiger bowlers remained atop the leaderboard.
Game three went much the same as the previous two with NA forcing the Talbots into extinction. Peoples set the pace with a 215 game and finished the day with the Best of Show, 683 series. This blue-ribbon feat was followed closely behind by Thomas’ 636. With 1990 pins knocked over after two games, the Tigers were aiming to reach the 3000-pin threshold to end the match. Unfortunately, this goal will have to wait for another day. NA won Game 3, 937-264. The Tigers finished with 2927 pins to Hampton’s 879. The Tigers earned all 7 match points and remain undefeated 4-0 in match play, 12-0 in game play.
The Lady Tigers lost 5 match points falling behind early losing game 1 (427-582) and game 2 (524-577). Not to be deterred, in Game 3, the Lady Tigers rallied behind Colleen Pattison’s high game of 130 and Julia Jordan’s high game of 157. This 1-2 punch was just what the Tigers needed to steal the final game, 581-578. Jordan is also to be commended for leading the Tigers in total pins with 382. North Allegheny finished the day with 1532 pins, but Hampton had gained a large enough advantage in the first two games to take the final point for total pins. The Tigers fall to 1-3 for the season.
The Tigers travel to Paradise Lanes next week to finish out the first half of the season and take on the other unbeaten WPIBL West team, the Chargers from Our Lady of Sacred Heart (OLSH).