The Delbarton bowling team advanced to the North II – Group 3 State Quarterfinals with a 2-0 sweep over Belleville in the first round of the playoffs.  For the third time in as many years these two teams met with a chance to advance on the line, and for the third time Delbarton came out on top.  The Green Wave was relentless as it never allowed the Buccaneers a chance to get back into the game.  With final game sores of 970-743 and 922-747, Delbarton outscored Belleville by a total of 1892-1490. 

Game 1: Delbarton 970 – Belleville 743

Delbarton opened the match nearly perfect with four of the five bowlers bowling strikes to start out the match hot.  On the opposing side of things, Belleville opened three of their first five frames, which showed early how this match was going to play out.  

By the end of the third frame, Delbarton had already built up a sizeable margin of 65 pins.  As a team, the Green Wave had closed 12 of 15 frames, powered by Michael Sclafani's opening turkey, the Wave were looking to put this match away early.  

At the close of the seventh frame, the lead had grown to 150 and the guys never looked back.  Christian Ciottariello was leading the way at this point with a score of 148 in the seventh, followed closely by Sclafani with a score of 135 to that point.  The team was looking good with all five bowlers still carrying potential scores above 200.  

The final three saw Delbarton extend its lead to 227 pins.  Several of the guys had a great close to game 1, with Michael, Rob Lannon, and Devin Martin all putting up three marks and Noah Ciottariello putting up four marks.  

Game 2: Delbarton 922 – Belleville 747

The Buccaneers showed that they were not going to go down without a fight in game 2.  Through the first three frames both teams had nine marks in fifteen attempts, and the Green Wave had a much smaller 31 pin advantage, predominantly being driven by the opening turkey of Devin Martin.  

During the seventh frame, Gavin Virag was subbed in for Christian, and he delighted his teammates by picking up a tough split that he had left on his first shot in the match.  By the end of the seventh frame Delbarton had once again built up a sizeable lead of 74 pins.  Devin Marth was leading the way with a score of 155 to that point.  

The final three frames proved too much for the Buccaneers as Devin closed out his clean game with a score of 254.  Rob finished with a nearly clean 199, and Noah was up there as well with a 191.  Michael contributed a 159 with some struggles and Gavin and Christian combined to put up a 119 to round out the team's effort.  

Individual Highlights:

• Devin Martin led the way today with a 456 two game series, highlighted by the clean 254 in game 2.  

• Noah Ciottariello had a 373 pair, Rob followed closed with a 368 pair, and Michael was right there with them shooting a combined 363.  

• Christian shot a 213 game one, but struggled in game two and was replaced by Gavin who closed three of the final five frames in relief.  

Looking Ahead:

With the first round under our belts, Delbarton move on to the North II – Group 3 State Quarterfinals against Fort Lee on Thursday, February 12th.  The Green Wave is familiar with Fort Lee as well, knocking them out of the playoffs last year in the Semifinals.  The Green Wave will look to do it again.  

As the pressure rises, so does the Green Wave.