MATTYDALE – A special area high school bowling season ended with Section III taking three of the four individual titles in the composite portion of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships at Strike-N-Spare Lanes.

And it included a third state title for Christian Brothers Academy standout Eliana Occhino along with a victory for East Syracuse Minoa junior Zach Kassel which included perfection and a memorable comeback.

In the second game of his session, Kassel bowled a 300 – 12 shots, 12 strikes. The perfect game was the only one of the entire day as no other individual could manage a game better than 287.

This put Kassel into the individual lead after he opened with 224. Then he shot 244 in the third game and 225 in the fourth to stay out in front before falling to a 189 in the fifth game.

Trailing with one game left, Kassel summoned another fine effort and, shooting 254, finished at 1,436, a mere 12 pins ahead of Mohonasen’s Matt Rogers – just two pins per game – for the Division I (large school) individual state title.

As for Occhino, she also summoned something special in her sixth and final game in Division II (small schools) to earn another championship to those she won in 2022 and 2023.

Having opened with 234 and 237, Occhino struggled with a third-game 175. But she got back into title contention with 234 and 222 in the next two games.

Still, it was a close battle at the top, so in her final game Occhino put together a string of strikes and a 269, the third-best individual score of the day, and with her 1,371 aggregate beat the 1,334 of Scotia-Glenville’s Savannah Swiatcoha.

Before all this, the ESM boys sought a third state title last Friday to go with the ones it earned in 1984 and 2007. In a six-game format the Spartans liked its chances thanks to the depth of its lineup, which was on display in the first two games as, with scores of 1,119 and 1,132, it went to the top of the standings.

Alex Locke got going with a 10-strike 277 in his opener, but it was Mike Saunders who almost got to perfection in the second game. Saunders rolled 11 consecutive strikes and only a single pin left on his final ball prevented a 300.

Still, the 299 by Saunders had the Spartans in the lead, but collectively it shot 989 in the third game to go to the break at 3,240, pushed back to sixth place but just still less than 100 pins behind Middletown’s 3,324.

The fourth game proved pivotal to the state team race. ESM had 1,025, but Section I’s Arlington used a 1,217, the best single game by any team, to surge to the lead, where it would stay.

As the afternoon wore on the Spartans improved its score to 1,107 in the fifth game and 1,137 in the final game, but could only climb to fifth place at 6,509, ultimately 242 pins behind Arlington’s top total of 6,751.

Locke had games of 212 and 244 following his opening 277. Then he shot three superb games of 267, 256 and 244 in the afternoon to finish at 1,516, only four pins from the top individual score of 1,520 earned by Arlington’s Braden Cassidy.

Saunders finished with a pair of 216s in his 1,293 series, averaging 215.5 per game. Luke Liedka had ever game between 204 and 227 in his 1,282 series to move inside the individual top 20. Kassel had a six-game total of 1,201 as Joe Gardner bowled five games of 948 with a 211 in the opener.

A day later in the state individual tournament, Locke had 10 strikes in an opening 278, but only had two other games above 200. Still, the 227 and 230 helped Locke finish 21st with an aggregate of 1,289 to beat the 1,214 from Liedka which had games of 225, 214 and 207. Gardner shot a closing 242 and a second-game 232 in his 1,155 series.

Joining Kassel and Occhino as a state champion was Rome Free Academy’s Mylie Weyant in girls Division I as Weyant had five games of 231 or better, including a 268, in her 1,375 aggregate.