EXETER — The goal for the participants in the Sept. 25 Pre-District Golf Tournament was to play their way into a return trip to Fox Hill Country Club.
Lake-Lehman sophomore Bobby Lugiano did not stop there.
Lugiano made his way to the top of the Class 2A boys leaderboard by shaking off a rough start on his way to a 78, three shots ahead of the pack.
“I think if I’m feeling good and playing my best game, I could easily shoot in the 70s,” said Lugiano, who therefore set out to play a normal round of golf, rather than to simply beat the maximum qualifying score of 93.
Thanks to his play on the greens, Lugiano was able to feel good through most of his round.
“The putter was definitely working,” he said. “I made some 10-15 footers that really saved me and I was really solid five feet and in.”
Lugiano’s only trouble was at the start. His worst shot and worst hole came first. After putting his tee shot into the trees on the right side on 1, he opened with a double bogey that he followed with a bogey.
“I knew that I could make up for it,” Lugiano said. “My timing was just off on the first swing of the day.”
Lugiano made up for it with consecutive birdies on 5 and 6. He pulled off the shot of the day from 190 yards out on the hill at 5, sticking a 6-iron to 10 feet before making the birdie putt.
“It was a really tough shot,” he said. “I hit it exactly where I needed to.”
Lugiano then reached the par-5 sixth in two and two-putted from 30 feet. His 38 on the back nine was two shots better than anyone else in the field.
The Wyoming Valley Conference filled all 18 of its available spots for Monday’s District 2 tournament with players who met the score of 93 or better. Lugiano was the only Lake-Lehman golfer to qualifier.
The District 2 Individual Championships begin at 9 a.m. Monday morning at Fox Hill.
CLASS 3A BOYS INDIVIDUAL
Dallas fell short of making it back to the District 2 team championships, but the Mountaineers did the next-best thing, sending the entire six-man lineup to the Individual Championships.
During Monday’s qualifier for 16 available berths, Dallas had six of the top 14 finishers.
Shane Angle from Crestwood was medalist with a 72.
Defending district champion Mason Gattuso from Dallas tied for fourth with a 79, one shot behind Tunkhannock’s lone qualifier, Tyler Faux.
Kyle McAndrew tied for seventh with an 81.
Brett Ostroski was tied for 10th with an 83, Colin Bowanko and Ethan Zawatski shared 12th with 85s and Cooper Kelly was 14th with an 86.
CLASS 3A BOYS TEAM
Wednesday’s WVC team playoffs turned into a repeat of last year’s three-team event in Class 3A.
For the second straight year, Tunkhannock won the Class 3A-1 Division while Dallas and Crestwood tied for the Class 3A-2 title after splitting home-and-home matches with each other.
This time, however, Crestwood edged Dallas for the right to compete in the district team tournament.
The Comets had four players shoot 78 or better while posting a team score of 302 to beat Dallas by five strokes.
Zawatski shot 73 while Ostroski and Gattuso had 74s for Dallas. Bowanko’s 86 completed the team score in the WVC’s format of the four-lowest scores out of six players.
Tunkhannock shot 348, led by Faux’s 81. Dylan Mislevy shot 83, Nick Budner 89 and Cody Gilpin 95.
