On December 12, the Rams’ Varsity bowling team played in their first game of the year against the York Tech Spartans. The Spartans won all three games, sweeping the Rams for the win.

Looking back at the game, head coach Joel Logan said, “The improvement from this time last season to now is night and day. There were some issues with picking up spares in this game, but not like last season.”

The lineup for the first game was: junior Colt Merrifield, senior Michael Zabkowski, freshman Cerenitie Decker, senior Jeffrey Fisher, and senior Takoda Stike.

The Rams’ totaled for a score of 736 in the first game while the Spartans bowled a total score of 964, taking the win in the first game. Zabkowski lead the way in scoring for the Rams with a score of 190, and York Tech’s leading scorer was Matthew Jacobs with a 211.

“I was pleased by some players who posted good scores even though there were some who struggled to make spares. Zabkowski shot a 190, and that’s his highest score posted in competition, that was awesome to watch,” Logan said.

Logan took Merrifield out after the first game and put junior Jordyn Bruening in his spot.

“Subbing Bruening in was a good decision, but I should have also subbed Griffith in, too; his 179 score would have won the game for us,” Logan said about the adjustments he made between the first and second game.

The second game was the closest out of all three. York Tech won that game by only 30 pins, winning 851 to 821. Stike posted a new personal best score of 257, the Rams’ best bowler in the second game. The leading scorer for the Spartans was Deric Mong who bowled for a score of 219.

Logan said, “We had that game won until the tenth frame. The 30 pin loss, due to the many missed spares, was painful. It was a shame that we lost that game because Takoda posted a new personal best score.”

Logan also mentioned that he is very proud of Stike for posting a new personal best

 score in only the first game of the season since he had just started bowling last season.

Then, in the third game, Logan put senior Owen Griffith in for Decker. York Tech

 won the third game as well by a score of 893-702. Logan commented that both teams seemed to run out of energy in the third game.

Just like the second game, Stike was the lead scorer for the Rams in the third game with a 176 score. Mong had the best score for York Tech in the third game as well with a score of 216.

Not only did Stike have the best score in two of the three games, but he also had the best series score for the Rams with a 602 series. Much like Stike, Mong had the best series score of 626 for the Spartans.

Looking at the road ahead, Logan would like to see his team make their spares because that is what the difference is between a loss and a win.

In her post game reflections, Decker said, “I feel like the second game was the best because we were all posting good scores, but overall, it seemed like we were giving them all we had.”

Although the Varsity team lost all three games dropping their record to 0-1, the Junior Varsity team won all three games making them 1-0 on the season.

Logan said, “Our second team, the J.V. team, won all their matches. This has made me reevaluate my starting lineup for future games.”