WEST ORANGE, NJ — Last week the West Orange High School boys bowling team was faced with several challenges to their season-long winning streak, and they came through like the champions that they are. The week began with the team knowing that two-year varsity starter Joshua Allen was unavailable due to injury. Then it became known that team-leading and conference-leading scorer Kieryn Knox would also miss all three remaining matchups. Lastly, it was determined that second-leading scorer Justin Soto would miss the March 3 contest against Seton Hall Prep.
The Mountaineers took to the lanes versus Seton Hall Prep without three of their top five scorers but were no less determined. They went out and won each of the three games played. Games one and three were particularly close, but the short-handed team battled through to get the wins. Senior Scott Lillis led the team with games of 226, 209 and 218, giving him a season-high series of 653. He was backed up by senior Owen Murphy’s 548 series, Cole Burdek’s 535 and Giovanni Chiovaro’s 503. Senior Lawrence Montague chipped in with a game 1 score of 203.
On March 4, they faced a determined Livingston team but also welcomed senior Justin Soto back to the lineup. It proved to be the winning combination, as West Orange again won all three games, although they were pushed to the limit, winning close games 1 and 2. Lillis led the charge bowling games of 241, 204 and 213 to a new season high 658. Soto returned with a 613 series, followed by Murphy at 605 and Burdek at 586.
The team finished out their regular season in a battle with a seasoned Millburn team on March 5 by winning the first two games, before Millburn edged them in game 3. West Orange won the matchup 5-2 to run their season record to 15-0 and become the Super Essex Conference–Colonial Division regular-season champions. Lillis saved his best for last with games of 245, 222 and 202. In doing so, he upped his season/career high series to 669. Murphy and Soto closed out their senior season with series of 621 and 572, respectively.
Unfortunately, this team will not have an opportunity to defend their back-to-back Essex County tournament championships nor make a deep run in the NJSIAA state tournament because of COVID-related cancellations. However, this season they did beat all of their opponents, win their third consecutive SEC division title and they are expected to continue to be ranked in the NJ.com “Top 10 Teams.” The team had the highest-scoring game at 1,120 and highest series at 3,138 in the SEC. Also, Knox led both the team and all three SEC divisions in highest game at 289, highest series at 800 and highest per-game average at 229.1.
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