The North Farmington Raiders boys and girls bowling teams rolled into Oxford’s bowling center undefeated and bowling well. On paper the teams matched up pin for pin with Oxford, so the match was bound to be close, AND IT WAS!
The Oxford girls battled right to the end but came up short losing their first match of the season. The final score was 17 to 13 with the Raiders scoring the victory. Oxford sent a young lineup to battle North Farmington and battle they did. Oxford and North Farmington split baker games and the Wildcats won Baker totals. North Farmington won 4 of 5 matches in game won but only won the game by 39 pins. In Game 2 in went right down to the last couple frames and Oxford won only 2 matches but won the game by 27 pins. Totals was the difference in the match and Oxford lost by 12 pins. Nice scores for the day were by Grace Meyer 213,161 Haley Verbeke 176,165 and Lily Boothe 170. The girls record is now 6-1 on the season 4-0 in the OAA Red.
“This team knew they needed a solid effort, and they gave it. This was a match that we would have loved to win but will learn from the mistakes we made. North Farmington is a good team and we battled them tough,” said Oxford coach Claude “Jr.” Lafner
The boys match on paper showed it would also be a very tough battle. Oxford made some mistakes in Baker Game 1, losing 168 to 203. They made corrections and won the game 2,191 to 181.
Sr. Co-Captain Collin Massie had it rolling in Game 1, shooting 249. Soph. Jason Paslean 204 and Jake Love 205 also shot well in Game 1 as the Wildcats won 1,012 to 938. Oxford entered Game 2 with a 12-7 lead and a 74-pin lead in totals. Game 2 Co-captains Tony Verbeke stepped up with a 243 game and Massie had a 215 to win their matches. The North Farmington team got hot in the 2nd game and rolled a team game of 1,056 to Oxfords 980, a 76-pin victory. The difference in the match was the 2 pins in totals, Final score 16-14 North Farmington. The boys record is now 7-2 on the season, 4-0 in the OAA Red.
“This is why we bowl. Two good teams battling to the end was very exciting. It’s a shame that there wasn’t a crowd,” Lafner said. “This was a show by 2 very good teams.”