Royal Bowlers win Match, Jamboree Blissfield trailed Onsted 10-0 but rallied for LCAA victory.

By DOUG DONNELLY

Advance Editor

It was a big week for the Blissfield bowling team.

The Royals staged a comeback to beat Onsted in a Lenawee County Athletic Association match Thursday, then won their second league jamboree of the season on Sunday.

Against Onsted, Blissfield fell behind 10-0 due to a great start by the Wildcats, but rallied to win 19-11 in the match held at Rich Lanes.

"Onsted came out swinging," Blissfield coach John Harden said. "They had a clean first game, without any open frames while we started with a difficult split."

Onsted won the first two games, 202-176 and 152-140.

Things turned around during the first set of individual games.

Preston Iffland rolled a 213, Matthew Anderson had the high game of the set with a 235 and Jon Cheney rolled a 201. The Royals also got a push from Cayden Swift, who made his varsity debut with a 204.

"I liked what I saw with Cayden stepping up and keeping focused on his game," Harden said. "He has come a long way since the start of the season, especially considering the fact that this is his first year of competitive bowling.

Swift followed-up his great opener with a 211 in the second game. Cheney rolled a 232.

The second LCAA Jamboree was hosted by Ten Pin Alley in Tecumseh.

The format for the event is identical to a regular season match but playing for maximum pinfall to earn the most points. This consists of two Baker games followed Whiteford

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The Royal squad came out strong with a 209 game, just above the second-place score of 202. The second game improved to 227 giving Blissfield a 31-pin lead going into the first individual game.

The team started strong there as well with all five Royal bowlers starting the first frame with strikes.

Anderson had the high game for the team with 258 followed by Collin Retter's score of 210. Iffland followed that with a 219 in the middle of the order. These scores were enough to give the team a total of 1,022, the only score above 1,000 for the night.

Blissfield was paired with Madison in the second round.

"Madison kept making marks and stringing together strikes," Harden said.

During the eighth frame, the Trojans missed a couple of crucial spares and Blissfield capitalized on the opportunity. In the end, the Royals won by 26 pins.

Harden said the Royals demonstrated what it takes to win as a team.

"When some of the athletes seem to struggle, the others step in and lift them up," he said. "It was a total group effort and I am impressed with the way they took care of business."