MATTYDALE – Top competition can raise the level of everyone involved, including bowling, where it’s inevitable that big scores can happen when each side brings their best effort.
Such was the case when Cicero-North Syracuse met East Syracuse Minoa Tuesday at Strike-N-Spare Lanes and the Northstars’ Garrett Arnold found perfection.
Having already rolled a 236 opening game, Arnold struggled to a 179 in the second but he then cranked out 12 consecutive strikes in his third game for the first 300 C-NS had this season.
Yet even with Arnold’s moment of perfection, a 715 series and a total pinfall of 3,586 to ESM’s 3,370, the Spartans got all the points in the 7-0 decision.
It helped ESM that Zach Kassel shot 10 strikes in an opening 278, followed with 245 and 225 and produced a 748 series, with Alex Locke adding a 717 series from games of 226, 247 and 244. They were supported by Ryan Dablock’s 664 series, Joe Gardner’s 621 series and Luke Liedka’s 620 series.
Closest to Arnold on C-NS’s side was Terry Miller with a 656 series featuring games of 238, 205 and 213. Nehemiah Bachmann went 213, 210 and 201 in his 624 set as Jayson Gilchrist shot a 561 series (211 high game) and Cameron Miller was steady earning a three-game total of 557.
The C-NS girls lost 7-0 to ESM. The Spartans’Alana Tuberville closed her set with a 233 to land on a 595 series, well clear of Trinity Short, whose three-game total of 478 was the only Northstars series above 400.
Both C-NS sides bowled again on Wednesday afternoon – and this time both would win, 7-0 over Syracuse City on the boys side and 5-2 on the girls side.
Cameron Miller led with a 695 series which he closed with a 268. Terry Miller had 10 strikes in his opening-game 279 on his way to a 646 series, while Bachmann shot 205, 225 and 207 in his 637 series and Arnold, after a modest start, roared to a 257 in his third game of a 634 series.
Short had her best game of the winter in the third game against Syracuse, putting up a 251 which brought her three-game total to 549. Jennifer Draper had a 380 series and Alyssa Bubniak a 366 series.
