by Phil Blackwell
East Syracuse Minoa boys bowler Ryan MacCombie nearly made a memorable comeback during last Friday’s Section III Boys Shootout at Pin-O-Rama in Utica.
With two berths in the March 10 state championships at the OnCenter on the line, MacCombie was lurking near the top of the standings early in the tournament, rising as high as third place through two games with scores of 214 and 215.
But when the next three games turned out 189, 171 and 167, MacCombie had fallen to 12th place with one game to go.Then, in that sixth and final game, MacCombie found his rhythm and strung together strikes, finishing with a 255, one of the best games of the entire tournament.
Finishing with an aggregate of 1,239, MacCombie rose all the way to fourth place, just 33 pins behind the qualifying score of 1.272 by second-place Tim Cloonan (Cicero-North Syracuse) as Indian River’s E.J. Melia was first with 1,279.
Three other local boys bowlers took part in the sectional shootout. Fayetteville-Manlius had John Buonfiglio in the field and he finished 11th with a six-game total of 1,172, with a 226 high game.
Bishop Grimes standout Joey Knapp had a 224 fourth game as his total of 1,108 put him in 18th place, just ahead of Christian Brothers Academy’s Vincent Carno, who had a 1,099 total for 22nd place.
