LYNN— The Spartans of St. Mary’s ran into a tough opponent in Bishop Stang on Wednesday afternoon at Gannon Municipal Golf Course, falling to the reigning state champions by a score of 233-162, ending the team’s win streak at four games.
Despite the loss, the team had some great individual performances headlined by eighth grader Anthony Barror, who paced the Spartans with an impressive total of 30 points. Sophomore Shea Newhall was one point behind Barror with 29. Senior Brendan Zollo, sophomore Josh Doney, and freshman Stephen Nason all tied with 22 points as well with junior Kyle Rush rounding out St. Mary’s top scorers with 19 on the day.
Junior captain Andrew Potter said he knew it wasn’t that his team played badly at Gannon, they just ran into a strong program in Bishop Stang. Potter talked about his thought process coming into the match and how he welcomed the tough competition.
“Coming into today, we knew that we were playing the state champions, the best team in the state, probably,” Potter said. “Obviously that gets us excited, we want to play the best teams, but the pressure got to me a little bit. It was a rough round out there, but we just gotta come back tomorrow and keep our game going.”
Potter mentioned that his short game was his saving grace during his round. He struggled to get on greens in regulation, limiting his scoring opportunities, but was able to salvage multiple pars thanks to the finesse of his chipping and putting.
Newhall played a solid round, highlighted by a near hole out on the 15th that would have been for eagle. Newhall had a chip from the approach that just skimmed the hole, forcing him to settle for the tap in birdie. Newhall also birdied the 12th hole, but had a few mistakes on the 18th and 11th holes where he scored double bogeys.
“29 wasn’t too bad for me here, against a good team,” Newhall said. “A few pars, a few bogeys, just had a few bad lies off my drives, but saved it with my second shots.”
Rush got off to a slow start in his round at Gannon. He had back to back triple bogeys on the opening holes but was able to fight through the rough start, ending his day by paring three out of the last four holes. Like Potter, Rush stated that his putter saved him multiple times after a few shaky drives. Like a majority of his other teammates, Rush wasn’t overly disappointed with his round, but he wasn’t impressed with it either – something he touched on after the match.
“Not my best round, not my worst round, but hopefully I can pick it up tomorrow and come out strong with a win,” Rush said.
The Spartans were winners of four contests in a row, and, for the most part, have been dominating their competition before Stang. The defending state champions returned all of their varsity players this season, making it an extremely tough matchup for a young St. Mary’s team. The Spartans are an incredibly young team, which makes their now 7-3 record that much more of an impressive feat. The team only has one senior in Brendan Zollo, along with four sophomores, two freshmen, and four eighth graders on the roster. Potter is one of five juniors and, as the season progresses, he believes the young core will really step up as they gain more experience.
“Our team is young, our best players are young, and our team is going to be great,” said Potter.
“We have a couple of freshmen that are shooting high 30s, low 40s,” Rush added. “We have a strong seven to 10 guys that I think are going to produce this year and I’m excited for the future of this team.”
Ryan Vermette can be reached at [email protected]
