Father Judge 2024 PCL Bowling Champions
(Pictured L-R) Team members Sean Elitz, EJ Kondrad, Nick Wolf, Matt DiCicco, Logan Burns & Connor Tonkin (Photo/ Josh Abrams for PSD)
(Photos by Father Judge Senior David Picariello/ Videos by Josh Abrams)
By: Josh Abrams
Bristol, PA -- Another eventful season of Philadelphia Catholic League bowling concluded on Saturday afternoon, with Father Judge and Conwell-Egan battling it out to decide who would hoist the coveted championship placard.
It was a packed house at Bowlero Bristol, as many family members, friends and students from both schools filled the viewing area of the venue. In the end, the Crusader faithful were the ones who went home happy, as Judge took down Egan by a final pin score of 2986 to 2858.
Sean Elitz (junior) and Matt DiCicco (senior) finished with overall showings of 634 and 610 pins, respectively, to pace the victors. The former showed the most consistency of all 10 bowlers throughout the contest; he was the only one to record 200 or better in all three games.
Elitz, like many of his other teammates, went through the other side of the experience as a freshman when Judge fell to Roman in the 2022 title game. This time around, he made sure he wouldn't live it again.
"I've been waiting for this day for the last two years," said the junior. "Every single day I've been thinking about it. (My teammates) are all my best friends."
Bowling in between Elitz & DiCicco were juniors Logan Burns (570 pins) and Nick Wolf (591), along with freshman Connor Tonkin (581). Elitz and Burns were potent in the first round, as the 1-2 punch combination knocked down 203 and 205 pins, respectively. From frames 5-9, Elitz bowled a "five-badger" (five strikes consecutively), while Wolf recorded a "four-badger" during the same stretch.
Egan's Ben Blaskopf & Judge's Nick Wolf taking first reps of the day (Video/Josh Abrams)
Judge's Connor Tonkin, Egan's Garrett Phillips bowl during second match of PCL Championship (Video/Josh Abrams)
Wolf led the way for the Crusaders in the first round with 212 pins. For Egan, Matt Coppola led all bowlers with 224 (including a five-bagger) and finished as the high-scorer for the day with 642 pins.
Balance was the name of the game for Judge's success on Saturday; all five bowlers recorded at least one 200-pin round, and as a team they went on a nine-strike run in the second match, which featured many more strikes & spares and much less open frames.
Father Judge Bowling HC Pat Hamill following monumental victory over Egan in PCL championship (Video/Josh Abrams)
Father Judge junior Logan Burns cherishes the win and reflects on how hard he and his teammates worked to come through on top (Video/Josh Abrams)
Judge's Sean Elitz on what coach Pat Hamill relayed to his team to keep them sharp and focused going into the final set (Video/Josh Abrams)
Judge's Matt DiCicco starts to heats up on final frame of second set with strike (Video/Josh Abrams)
DiCicco caps off second set with turkey in final frame, gets Judge crowd hyped up (Video/Josh Abrams)
Coppola stayed hot in the second match for the Eagles. The anchor rolled seven total strikes, including a four-bagger from the second-to-fifth frames, and cleared everybody else's total with a 235 showing. He finished with 642 total pins, good for the best individual showing on the day.
Similar to the first round, four of Judge's five bowlers reached 200 or better in the second. Three of them (Elitz, Wolf & DiCicco) recorded second consecutive 200+ pin showings. DiCicco provided a solid, steady anchor role in the middle match by hitting all of his spares and striking in each of his last four rolls.
The efforts of the back-three for Judge led them to outscore Egan 1,010-962 and take a 167-pin lead into the third and final round. But given Crusader head coach Pat Hamill has led his team to this position before, he wasn't going to look ahead, for any reason.
"We knew coming in it was going to be a really good match," the long-time head coach said. "I told our guys 'stay loose, stay calm and don't pressure yourself.' And it worked out well."
Conwell-Egan found their stride in the third set, outscoring Father Judge 1,018-979. Ben Blaskopf notched the highest individual score of all three rounds with 255 pins which included a five-bagger to start the set (his 609 total finished fourth best overall). Brian Baill caught fire as well, striking in six of his frames and hitting a very impressive five-pin split in the 10th frame.
Burns made sure the push from the Eagles wouldn't affect his team, though, as he rolled strikes on five of the first six frames and kept Judge on pace with Egan.
The fast start from the junior ensured the victory for Father Judge, and he could not have been more relieved and satisfied with the results.
"Me and my team worked so hard to get here," Burns expressed. "I'll remember this day forever, I'm just excited and happy."
Judge closes their regular season with a 18-1-1 overall record and the coveted PCL championship. Egan certainly had no slouch of a regular season, finishing 18-1-1 as well.
