Hough takes boys title, Scher takes girls in bowling

The competition was taut and taxing Tuesday in the Nassau boys individual bowling tournament and state qualifier as just 35 pins separated the champion from the seventh-place finisher.

In the end, it was Rick Hough of Bellmore-Merrick who stood as kingpin, toppling 1,334 in six games to win the county crown.

Hough, who entered with the eighth-best average in Nassau, rolled a 269 in Game 2 for the tournament's high and his 247 was tops in the final set. Still, he edged Wantagh's Ryan Fiorillo by five pins.

"Last year I was about to win and my friend [Sewanhaka's Josh Roca] came from behind and beat me," Hough said. "To win this is really special because you're competing against all the top guys . . ."

Fiorillo finished ahead of third-place Anthony Pucci (Mineola) by only four pins. And so it went, down to sixth place, where Michael Bukovsky (Baldwin) earned the last of the six spots available on the sectional team, finishing ahead of East Meadow's Corey Rogan, 1303-1299. Rogan, who had the county's top average, was denied by four pins.

"Corey definitely deserved to make it," Hough said. "But it's tough because everyone bowled good."

Massapequa's Steve Stashin (1,315) and Valley Stream South's Andrew Gardner (1,314), who took fourth and fifth, also qualified for the state team, which will compete on March 7 at Mardi Bob Lanes in Poughkeepsie.

Scher takes girls' title

Valley Stream Central's Nichole Scher won the girls title, totaling 1,210. She finished 71 ahead of Rebecca Gotterbarn (Sewanhaka), separating herself from the pack with a 235 in Game 4 and a 220 in Game 5.

"This will be my third time going to states, but I'd never won the tournament before," Scher said. "In 10th and 11th grade I took sixth. Usually I make it by the skin of my teeth, so it felt good to be ahead for once and relax."

Lawrence's Krista Bevilacqua took third (1,119) and Bethpage's Sarah Rosenheck was fourth (1,110), followed by a Sewanhaka cluster. Danielle Roca's 1,107 was good for fifth and seventh-grader Kristina Genova's 1,076 put her a single pin ahead of teammate Amanda Esteves for sixth.

"That was not fun for me," Sewanhaka coach Jay Hegi said. "You'd almost rather have someone from another team beat your kid . . . The girls were supportive of each other, though. They hugged afterwards and it was a pleasant site."