Senior Ammad Quraishi was one of four Fort Lee bowlers who averaged 175 or better in division play to lead the Bridgemen to the Big North American title. (Don Smith/Staff Photographer)
Today, the Aces bring you the a look at the final Big North boys bowling standings for 2013-14. I’m tempted to call this Part One of the boys recap, but technically speaking (which happens quite often on Taglines), of the two major conferences in North Jersey, only the Big North has all-boys divisions. The small-school NJIC includes co-ed squads, although for competition purposes, they are classified as boys teams.
Nonetheless, simplicity is the goal here: girls standings were posted Tuesday, boys standings today, co-ed standings tomorrow. Let’s just leave it at that.
If you missed any of the All-North Jersey boys bowling features in The Record on Sunday (March 16 edition), here are the northjersey.com links for your viewing enjoyment — the All-North Jersey 1st and 2nd teams … Bowler of the Year Jake Rollins of Glen Rock … Team of the Year Lyndhurst … Coach of the Year Audrey Jantzen of Passaic Tech … and the season’s final Top 10 rankings. (FYI, the video links with the boys and girls Bowler of the Year stories are now active, thanks to Tyson Trish for putting those together once again.)
NOTE: Same deal as yesterday, you’ll see match play W-L records *and* points records for each division in Column 2, with overall points records in Column 3 as a bonus…
FINAL 2013-14 BIG NORTH BOYS BOWLING STANDINGS
UNITED Div.W-L/Pts Overall Pts
Paramus Catholic 6-2, 42-14 70-21
Don Bosco 5-3, 35-21 58-40
Bergen Catholic 4-4, 32-24 63-49
St. Joseph 5-3, 31-25 56½-34½
DePaul 0-8, 0-56 9-103
Analysis: This is exactly why points standings can be so tricky sometimes. St. Joseph finished with a better win-loss than Bergen Catholic, but the Crusaders scored one more point and thus finish third in the United. This was a great race, the difference was that Paramus Catholic swept three straight 7-0 matches from DePaul, St. Joe’s and BC in mid-January to open up some breathing room. The Paladins got huge series from James Kane (730) and Brian Rizzi (667) against Joe’s and from Devin Puccio (673) and Vincent Santana (652) versus Bergen. Don Bosco finished second by blanking St. Joe’s in the finale, 7-0, behind Tim Kisala’s season-best 259 game.
LIBERTY Div.W-L/Pts Overall Pts
Passaic Tech 10-0, 68-2 113-6
Bergen Tech 8-2, 54-16 72-33
Clifton 6-4, 42-28 48-50
Eastside 3-7, 21-49 21-77
Passaic 2-7, 18-45* 20-64
Kennedy 0-9, 0-63* 0-91
Analysis: You read it in The Record first, Passaic Tech coach Audrey Jantzen managed to get her entire lineup involved, and the Bulldogs ended up with a 787 four-man average per game, second-best in the conference. Bergen Tech deserves some kudos as well, seniors Steven Doughty (197 league average) and Dean Edwards (190) both had over 20 games of 200-plus and averaged even higher in the county and sectional tournaments.
FREEDOM Div.W-L/Pts Overall Pts
Indian Hills 10-0, 70-0 96-2
No. Highlands 7-3, 49-21 75-30
Ridgewood 6-4, 45-25 59-32
Hackensack 4-6, 25-45 34-64
Paramus 3-7, 17-53 26-65
Ramapo 0-10, 4-66 9-89
Analysis: The highest four-man per-game average in the conference (800) came from Freedom champ Indian Hills. Six Braves averaged 180 or better in the league, and 4 were at 200-plus (yes, I’m rounding up senior Graham Mulligan’s 199.5, so there). They join the Teaneck and Bergen Tech girls as the only Big North teams to finish unbeaten in both win-loss AND points records. I’d mention more names, but some chap from the Franklin Lakes/Oakland Suburban News had IH pretty well-covered. Runner-up Northern Highlands also got some postseason ink in the weekly Town Journal — nice season for seniors Phil Hubelbank (188 division average), Carlo Russo (179), Sean Verillo (702 high series) and John Wendeborn (277 high game, 717 high series).
INDEPENDENCE Div.W-L/Pts Overall Pts
West Milford* 6-2, 40-16 96-16
Fair Lawn* 6-2, 40-16 78-34
Wayne Valley 5-3, 32-24 61-37
Lakeland 3-5, 24-32 57-41
Wayne Hills 0-8, 4-52 25-80
Analysis: How’s this for drama? West Milford needed to take all 7 points from Wayne Hills in its final Independence match on Jan. 29 in order to earn a share of the title with Fair Lawn (which had finished its division slate a full two weeks earlier). Sophomore Matt Goldberg had a 258 game as part of a 631 series that day, Highlanders win 7-0, hail to not one but two division champs. Goldberg and junior Jeremy Scott both averaged around 196 in the league for West Milford. Juniors Cory Heitler (200) and Justin Goldschmidt (192) led the way for Fair Lawn, and if the Cutters need more bragging rights, they advanced further in the state team tournament. Although the Highlanders had more bowlers in the state individual tournament. No settling this draw, it seems…
NATIONAL Div.W-L/Pts Overall Pts
Pascack Valley 10-0, 62-8 81-10
Bergenfield 7-3, 53-17 75-37
Teaneck 7-3, 43-27 58-54
Demarest 4-6, 34-36 43½-54½
Old Tappan 2-8, 9-61 9-82
Tenafly 0-10, 9-61 9-82
Analysis: Pascack Valley led this division pretty much wire-to-wire, winning every match either 7-0 or 5-2. All five Indian regulars averaged 180-plus in league play — Ryan Vasel (211), Rob Borrelli (196), Joe Ballesteros (193), Eric Robinson (189) and Josh Kasper (180) — but boy, Bergenfield did not make it easy on them. The Bears have three real-deal shooters in righties Greg Khan (208) and Nick Reyes (204) and lefty Nick Wolanski (188), and if the National used a three-man format, they may well have won the thing. The good news for Bergenfield is, all three will return. As will Vasel, Ballesteros and Kasper for PV. Oh, rivalries…
PATRIOT Div.W-L/Pts Overall Pts
Westwood 8-0, 54-2 86-19
Mahwah 5-3, 31-25 58-68
Ramsey 3-5, 24-32 42-56
River Dell 4-4, 23-33 33-65
Pascack Hills 0-8, 8-48 28-77
Analysis: Did we mention that 2013-14 was perhaps the best season in the history of Westwood bowling for boys and girls? No… Cardinals senior Andrew Cirillo did that for us (fourth-to-last paragraph in that link). Ok, Taglines said it, too, but that was the first link I found. Plus, Cirillo’s 213 league average led the Big North, making him a reputable source. I also had similar discussions on Westwood’s success this winter with several [dozen?] members of the Rivers clan, including Kyle (202) and Brandon (194). Runner-up Mahwah deserves a mention as well, the T-Birds are not normally a bowling power but had five guys average in the 160s-170s, including sophomore Chris Salerno (174).
AMERICAN Div. W-L/Pts Overall Pts
Fort Lee 6-0, 32-10 77-28
Dumont 4-2, 31-11 79-19
Ridgefield Park 2-4, 21-21 33-65
Cliffside Park 0-6, 0-42 4-87
Analysis: Saving the best for last, it would appear. Fort Lee and Dumont entered their snow-delayed season finales separated by just 4 points. The Huskies swept Cliffside Park, 7-0, on Feb. 6 behind a monster 712 series from frosh phenom Kyle Schellberg (who ended up in the same boat that Fair Lawn’s Ellie Schuckman did on the girls side — if one more spot was allowed on the All-North Jersey boys first team, it would’ve gone to him). Anyway, that meant Fort Lee had to defeat Ridgefield Park on Feb. 7, and do so with anchor Ammad Quraishi across the pond on a college visit, in order to win the division.
The bad news for the Bridgemen: Ridgefield Park won total wood, 2,014-2,001. The good news: They only needed to take 2-of-3 games regardless of total pinfall to earn the 4 points necessary to hold on to first place. They did. Fort Lee’s 4-3 victory gave it the American title by one point, and you know the rest of the story… Quraishi (179 overall average) returned to help the Bridgemen finish second in Group 3 at the state finals, he and fellow senior James Han (176) rode off into the sunset after captaining arguably the best season in program history, and Fort Lee coach Phil Bello earned the unofficial Chuck Johnson award for referring to Taglines as “coach” every time we spoke. (P.S. Johnson, the Ridgewood football coach, is believed to have started the fad, and I dig it — you’ll never be accused of forgetting names again!)
Don’t let us forget… final 2013-14 NJIC standings will be up on Varsity Aces by week’s end.
—GT