Viking ready for districts
First Posted:
ELMHURST – Riverside senior Carl Pugliese is headed to the District 2 Boys Golf Tournament for the fourth straight year.
Pugliese qualified Thursday, Sept. 20 at Elmhurst Country Club when he shot an 86 to tie for 16th with Old Forge’s Cameron Carpenter among 61 Class AA players seeking 26 district berths.
This is the first year that the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association and PIAA District 2 split golf according to enrollment classifications.
Pugliese, who continued a strong season that includes a 10-1 match-play record, and Carpenter will play in the first District 2 Class AA Tournament Oct. 8 at Fox Hill Country Club.
Evan Joyce and Nick Johnson, a pair of Scranton Prep players from Moosic, shot 80 and 82 to place among the 20 Class AAA qualifiers. The district Class AAA Tournament will be played at the same time at Fox Hill.
Dunmore, in Class AA, was the only team to get all six of its players through Lackawanna League qualifying. Holy Cross advanced five in Class AA.
Abington Heights and North Pocono led Class AAA teams by qualifying five golfers each while Scranton Prep had four.
Cody Cox of Delaware Valley and Greg Reeves of Lakeland claimed medalist honors. Cox shot 72 to lead Class AAA qualifying and Reeves shot 74 to lead all Class AA players.
Anthony Sebastianelli of Abington Heights was second in Class AAA with a 73 and the Comets had four of the top seven. Sean Conway was fourth with 77, while Alex Altier and Dave Harris tied for fifth with 78.
North Pocono’s Kerry Connors finished third with a 76 while Wallenpaupack’s Eric Miller was part of the tie at 78.
John Barone of Dunmore was second in Class AA with a 77, one shot ahead of Thomas Dzwonczyk of Holy Cross.
Danielle Dalessandro, a Scranton Prep player from Moosic, led Class AAA girls qualifying with an 80 Friday at Scranton Municipal.
West Scranton posted two straight shutouts, including one against second-place Scranton Prep in a Lackawanna League Division 1 game.
The Invaders (2-3-1) played the Cavaliers (4-1-1) to a scoreless tie Sept. 15 at Memorial Stadium then came back with a 1-0 victory over North Pocono Monday night.
Vinny Arcieri made six saves and Brandon Soldani scored on a Tyler Jakes assist in the first half of the win over North Pocono.
Plans are set for the District 2 tournament. There will be eight-team brackets in all three classes, including Class AAA, which is actually a regional tournament with the inclusion of Williamsport, the only large school team from District 4.
West Scranton is among the six Lackawanna teams fighting for five spots in the field that also features two from the Wyoming Valley Conference and Williamsport.
Qualifying is a bit more difficult in Class AA and Class A. Instead of 10 teams trying to find their way among the eight in the playoffs, there are 15 Class AA schools and 14 Class A.
Scranton Prep is among the five Lackawanna schools in Class AA. There are two spots for Lackawanna teams and the league’s third-best Class AA team will play the sixth-place WVC team for the final berth.
Old Forge and Riverside are in a group of 11 Lackawanna Class A teams playing for six berths. In addition, the seventh-place team will play the second-place WVC team for the final spot.
The pairings will be established in an Oct. 22 seeding meeting.
The play-in games will be Oct. 23. Quarterfinals are Oct. 25 through 27. The semifinals in Class A are Oct. 29 and in the two larger classes are Oct. 30. The Class A final is Oct. 31 and the other two are Nov. 1.
The state tournament opens Nov. 6, including Class AAA and Class A games at District 2 sites.
Plans are set for the District 2 tournament. West Scranton and Scranton Prep are among 19 teams in what should be a highly competitive Class AA field with the addition of teams from the Wyoming Valley Conference, which played in the fall until now.
The Lady Invaders and Classics are among six Lackawanna League teams. There are two Class AA berths for Lackawanna teams plus the third will play the seventh-place WVC team in a play-in game. The seeding meeting, play-in and quarterfinals will follow the same schedule as the boys. The semifinals are Oct. 29 and the final is Nov. 1.
District 2 will also have an eight-team tournament in Class A and all seven District 2 and 4 teams will participate in a Class AAA regional.
