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ROARING BROOK TWP. — The conditions couldn’t have been better for a round of golf Friday at Elmhurst Country Club, where the District 2 Team Championships were held.
The Wyoming Valley Conference champions, Dallas (Class 3A) and Wyoming Seminary (Class 2A) took advantage of the conditions with nearly every player on both teams shooting a score better than they did at the WVC team playoffs last month.
Despite their best efforts, Dallas fell to Wallenpaupack 307-315 as the Buckhorns repeated as District 2 Class 3A champions, and the Blue Knights fell to Scranton Prep by 18 shots as the Cavaliers scored a 301.
“I’m really proud of the way they played today. The scores were phenomenal on both sides,” Dallas coach Jane Kilduff said. “I’m very proud of the team and their hard work and effort certainly paid off. They did everything I asked and I can’t ask for anything more.”
The lowest score of the day by any golfer came from Dallas’ Mason Gattuso, who fired 2-under par 70, finishing two strokes ahead of the second-lowest score, from Wallenpaupack’s Kyle Pillar. The score by Gattuso was by far the best score he’s had during an 18-hole tournament this season, seven shots better than his next best, which occurred at the preseason Tryba Tournament.
He picked up five birdies on the day and shot 3-under-par 33 on the back nine, tying Sem’s Bobby Wilson for the lowest score on the last nine holes. But Gattuso was the only golfer to shoot an entire round under par.
“I played very well on the back nine. I missed a short putt on 17, but other than that everything was really nice,” Gattuso said. “I got into a rhythm on the back nine. On the front nine, I had a bunch of pars, nothing really amazing. Then on the back nine, I started off with two birdies and it led a good way to the number I shot on the back nine.”
Wallenpaupack’s Kyle and Alex Pillar, and Nate Trout proved to be too much for the Mountaineers as the trio all shot under 80. Gattuso was the only one from Dallas to score that low.
Still, both WVC teams have plenty to look forward to in the future. The Blue Knights, who were paced by Noah Munley’s 75 and Bobby Wilson’s 76, played just two seniors of the five who participated on Friday. Munley and Liam Gilroy (82) are the only two seniors with Wilson just a sophomore.
The Mountaineers have no seniors in the lineup. Gattuso is a junior. Ethan Zawatski and Colin Bowanko, who both fired 81, are sophomores, while Brett Ostroski (83) is a freshman. Sophomore Kyle McAndrew shot an 84, but it was dropped and didn’t count towards the team score.
“Everyone’s going to be coming back next year with a little more experience,” Kilduff said. “A lot of my team didn’t have much competitive play experience. Not only did we have a great year in our matches and competition, they also learned a lot. I hope those lessons could be applied to next year’s play and see where we go next year.”
Scranton Prep, which entered the title match coming off an easy win over Riverside in the Lackawanna League championship, produced a score under 80 by all four of its scorers. Frank Adamo (73) led the Cavaliers with Jack Habeeb (75), Tyler Marchese (75) and Sabastian Cimoch rounding out the team scores.
Prep and Wallenpaupack advance to the PIAA Regional round, which will be held on Oct. 14 also at Elmhurst against teams to be determined.
The high school golf postseason continues on Tuesday at Elmhurst with the District 2 Individual Championships.
