The South Bergenite high schools have had a big year in bowling with both Becton and Queen of Peace expected to win the BCSL National and American divisions. North Arlington is expected second in the National and St. Mary’s is having a strong year especially from Julius Johnson, one of the top bowlers in the county.
Queen of Peace was in command of the American last week and Golden Griffins Shannon Maurer finished third overall in Saturday’s state sectionals for girls.
North Arlington has had a strong season especially with another big year from sophomore Matt Priore, one of the best bowlers in Bergen County. The Vikings defeated Becton last week, 3-2, after winning the point total. The Wildcats on the first game, 738-726 and North Arlington won the second game, 776-713.
In terms of Becton, if as expected, they clinch the National this week, it would the fourth straight divisional title and the seventh in the last eight years. The Wildcats were six points ahead of North Arlington and seven points ahead of Secaucus.
"It’s looking pretty good, but we need to finish the job," said Becton head coach Marc Caprio. "I told the kids at the beginning of the year that lets win the league and the rest will follow."
The boys state sectional is this week, Becton is looking to win the North 1A after finishing second to New Milford last season. The Wildcats would go on and win the Group 1 last season. North Arlington will be in the mix this season in the same sectional.
"You never know," said Caprio. "Last season in the sectional we did bowl well, but in the Group finals, we had our sixth bowler threw a 232 and 237 after averaging 170 last season."
With five seniors graduating from last season, Caprio said his team is not as deep. The two starters back from last season led the team led by senior captain Kenny Gdyk, who is averaging 197 this season with a high game of 257.
"Kenny has done a good a good job in the cleanup role and that has a lot of pressure," said Caprio about Gdyk who replaced Kris Tokarski as the team leader. The head coach added that Gdyk is about even in terms of his average.
The other returnee this season was senior Jeff Sennit who has averaged 189 points with a high of 277. "Jeff is about 10 pins down from last season and he’s been hot and cold," said Caprio who added that Sennit’s best game came early in the season.
The two newcomers to the varsity this season are senior Justin Bilardello who took off his junior season of bowling and junior Steve Cicchetti. Bilardello averaged 188 this season with a high game of 268 while Cicchetti averaged 176 this season with a high of 229.
While during the BCSL National season, there are only four bowlers bowling in a game, the Bergen County and state tournament have five bowlers each in a game. The fifth bowler on the team is junior Tom Muszynski who averaged 164 with a game high of 218.
"This season I need the top four bowlers to bowl their average and the fifth bowler to bowl well," said Caprio.
