TRINITY PREP MATCH
On Tuesday, October 2, the varsity teams traveled to Aloma Bowl to face Trinity Prep and came away with two victories.

BOYS VARSITY

The boys team bowled their second Baker match of the season. The first game had the Darters taking an early lead with a 161 game against Trinity’s 134. The boys increased their score in the second game, rolling a 174 behind Jon Ladines’ three strikes in the 10th frame. The third game found the Darters struggling, ending the game with a low score of 118. The boys continued to lose some of their lead in the fourth game before pulling out a 209 in the final game, ending the match with an 825 to 708 victory.

Chris Zugelder had the high mark percentage at 90%, which included six strikes out of the ten frames he rolled. The boys boast a 10-1 record and remain undefeated in the Metro.

COACH'S COMMENTS:

We really struggled with the lane conditions. We are accustomed to bowling on drier lanes and did not adjust to the oil pattern until the final game. The added experience bowling Baker will benefit us when we get to the District Tournament at the end of the month.

GIRLS VARSITY
With a 180 game by Stephanie Baer and a 169 game by Penni Hilson, the girls took an early lead in their match, rolling 691 to 676. The second game of the match allowed the girls to build on that lead, outrolling Trinity 610 to 551. With Ashley Preston’s 171 game, the girls outrolled Trinity in the final game 684 to 653. The final score was 1985 to 1880.

Penni Hilson had the high series with a 430, closely followed by Ashley Preston with a 426 and Stephanie Baer with a 425. The girls have a 7-3 record.

COACH'S COMMENTS:

Penni has really improved her game, rolling the high series two matches in a row. Stephanie and Ashley had one really good game each, and the newer bowlers are beginning to improve their skills and roll higher games.

UNIVERSITY MATCH
The Apopka High bowling teams completed week 6 with a match against University on Thursday, October 4, at Wekiva Bowling Center.

BOYS VARSITY

The boys varsity team began their match with a determination to win as Josh Ramlal started the game with 4 strikes in a row and Jon Ladines threw seven strikes in a row on his way to a 245 game. After game 1, the boys had an 83 pin lead over University, 897 to 814. During the second game, the Panthers gained some of the pins back as they outrolled the Darters 889 to 876, despite a 211 game by James Morris. The Darters put it all together in the third game behind Josh’s 244 game to roll a 996 series and secure the victory. The final score was 2769 to 2556.

Jon Ladines had the high series with a 609, followed by Josh Ramlal with a 598. The boys record is 11-1 overall and 10-0 in the Metro.

COACH'S COMMENTS:

I was proud of the effort put forth by the entire team to earn this victory. The boys needed this one to earn their tenth victory in the Metro with no losses to secure a share of the Metro championship. They have worked hard all season to get to this point, so I am very excited for them, especially the seniors, who can now boast that they have won the Metro three years in a row.

GIRLS VARSITY
The girls faced a tough University team and came up short, losing 1930 to 2299. Penni Hilson gave the Apopka a high game of 175 in the first series to pace the girls to a 707 score, but University rolled a 790, putting the Darters behind after the first game. All scores fell during the second game, with a low total for the day of 582. Stephanie Baer rolled a 172 in the third game as the total score raised to a 641.

Stephanie Baer had the high series with a 452, followed by Penni Hilson with a 428. The girls are 7-4 overall and 6-4 in the Metro.

COACH'S COMMENTS:

While I was impressed with some of the games that the girls bowled today, we are really going to have to improve our scores if we hope to compete in upcoming matches. While our scores remain fairly consistent, at this point in the season, I am expecting more. I thought that Stephanie, Penni, and Chelsea all had very good games at some point in the match but three good games are not enough to win.

BOYS JV

The JV boys were also defeated by University, despite two good games during the match. They began the match with a 17 pin deficit as University outscored Apopka 155 to 138. The Darters continued to lose ground in the second game before pulling out their high game with a 151. The final two games of the series found the Darters again losing ground. The final score of the match was 627-698. Brian Beauchesne had the high series with 80% marks that included 6 out of 10 strikes

COACH'S COMMENTS:

The boys are not finishing their frames and leaving too many opens. You can’t win matches if you cannot make the spares and strikes. We have too many bowlers that are still throwing either gutter balls or hitting only a few pins, especially after spares. That really hurts the entire team and the scores.