A little late, but better late than never...
Congratulations to Joe Novara for winning the Bowlage.com Presents The Nor'Easter Tournament held at Bowlero North Brunswick on April 16th. Bowled on the very difficult US Open Day #2 Pattern, a grueling, flat pattern that the best bowlers in the world struggled on, scores were expected to be low. Novara got out to a strong start, shooting games of 195, 255, 224, 194 and 195, a +63 which was good enough to be the #1 seed headed into Match Play. The other 7 finalists in order were Rob Gotterbarn, JD Santalucia, Saul Marcus, Pierce Field, Mike Weinert, Adam Chase and Jason Stetina.
Novara's first match in Match Play was against Stetina and Novara got by with a 183 - 176 win, with each win earning 30 bonus pins. In the second match, he defeated Pierce Field 223 - 138 and in the third, Gotterbarn got the best of him 176 - 172. After Match Play, the Top 4 were Novara, Santalucia, Marcus and Weinert, who headed into a bracket.
In the semis, Novara bested Weinert 192 - 161 while Santalucia took down Marcus 157 - 141 to set up the finals match between Novara and Santalucia. Unfortunately, Santalucia was bowling on a tender hip and it got the best of him in the title match, as Novara went on to win 178 - 133 and take his first Bowlage.com Pattern Series chip along with the $800 first place prize. There were 43 total entries and the cut to cash was -58.
