By Dylan Butler
Ricky Yan couldn’t hear the rambunctious crowd that swelled nine deep behind him at Whitestone Lanes Jan 18. While everyone around him felt the anxiety of an incredibly tight CHSAA city championship bowling match, the Holy Cross sophomore was the definition of calm.
Yan capped the best week of bowling in his life with a pair of 200-plus games to lead the Knights to their second city championship in three years with a 4-1 win over rival Archbishop Molloy. The match was decided by just 42 pins.
“All my friends helped me. I felt no pressure,” said Yan who was named MVP of the match after bowling a 235 and a 205 in the final. “I felt good. I felt in the groove.”
In addition to picking up the city championship trophy, the Woodhaven resident brought home the hardwood for Highest Series and Highest Average after also bowling a pair of 200-plus games in a semifinal win over Salesian.
“When I first saw him bowl, I decided he would go first in our rotation and he said ‘I can’t,’” Holy Cross first-year coach James Purcell said. “I told him ‘can’t’ was the worst word he could use. He was just enormous. We needed a lead-off guy like him.”
On most afternoons Yan’s 235 would have been the high score of the match, but his first game result was second-best to Molloy junior Jason Nikol, who was perfect through seven frames before leaving the 10 pin hanging on the eighth frame. The Woodhaven resident finished with a 244.
But while Nikol provided the early dramatics, it was Stanners junior Anthony Devito who stepped up late. Very late. With his team trailing by 10 pins on the final toss of the 10th frame Devito needed a strike to tie the first game. And he delivered, sending the crowd into a frenzy as the opening game, which was played at an incredibly high pace, finished tied at 934.
“Whenever we’ve played each other the last four years it’s been very intense,” said Molloy head coach Vin Leonardo.
The city championship, which was won by Molloy last year and Holy Cross in 2000, came down to only one game and both teams struggled in the opening five frames.
“The nerves definitely set in in the second game,” said Holy Cross senior Sal Ronzino, one of three Knights to average better than 200 during the season. “Molloy bowled a heck of a match. We knew it would be tough and it was another great match. It was one of the best matches I’ve ever seen.”
A change in condition of the lanes also made it tougher on the bowlers.
“The lane conditions were tight to start with but as the match goes on and the oil goes to the back of the lanes, it make the shots very hard,” Leonardo said. “We needed to adjust and obviously we didn’t and that’s how it goes.”
Despite the early struggles of both teams, Holy Cross (16-2) opened up an early lead, which was key according to Purcell, and the Knights never relinquished it.
“In the second game we stayed up,” the Flushing resident said. “I figured if we take the lead then let them try and come from behind.”
Molloy (20-2) came close as a big fifth frame that saw all five bowlers nail strikes and a huge ninth frame that saw Nikol, Chris Stanton, Greg Elder and Devito throw strikes brought the Stanners to within four pins heading into the 10th frame.
But Yan opened the 10th with a clutch strike. And when Joe D’Amato followed suit later in the fame, the Knights all but wrapped up the title with an 897-855 victory.
“He’s just great,” Ronzino said of Yan. “When a few of us struggled, including myself, he just picked it up. He went out there and got himself a city championship.”
Reach Associate Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 143.
