It all came down to one game. Kyle Perillo looking to become a first-time winner. Alex Cavagnaro seeking his third LIUSBC Masters crown. In the end, there could only be one person standing.
And that person was Kyle Perillo.
In what has been one of the (if not the) most prestigious tournaments of the year for the Long Island Bowling Community, 96 entries were submitted across two squads at AMF Garden City Lanes in an attempt to be crowned the 2024 LIUSBC Masters Champion. Bowling on a custom, 35', 2.56:1 ratio sport pattern, scores were actually on the high side from the beginning. The 11AM squad, with 65 entries, was led by Scott Kampf, at +251. Kampf was trying to become the first set of brothers to win the crown, with Justin winning it in 2017. The 3PM squad, with 31 entries and what appeared to be a slightly different playing oil pattern (claimed by several sources), was led by phenom Joe Novara at +243. The Top 24 made it to Sunday's Cashers Round, with the Top 16 moving on to the final bracket.
Perillo, who was +154 after the first 6 games of qualifying, bowled well in the cashers round, with games of 243, 256, 233, 233 and 195 to earn the #3 seed, with Cavagnaro and Novara holding the first 2 seeded spots. The other bracket finalists in order were: Kampf, Joe Scianna, Nick Giovanniello, Jeremy Milito, Rob Gotterbarn, Darren Andretta, RJ Broege, Jonathan Corda, Eric Smyth, Gary Haines, Mike Cantante, Sam Kaplan and Jeffrey Juarez.
Young Kyle started the Bracket Finals with a BANG, shooting a perfect game 300 right out the gate to move onto the Elite 8. His next match was a 238-234 win over Giovanniello. He then took down Novara 224-186 before defeating Cavagnaro 243-237 to come out of the Winners Bracket. Of course, this was a Double Elimination tournament, so after those initial losses, everyone had a second chance. Kampf, who lost to Cavagnaro in the round of 8 by a score of 278-227, took the most of this opportunity, knocking off Scianna and Novara to set up a rematch with Cavagnaro in the Losers Bracket final. However, once again, Cavagnaro proved too much and the stage was set for a rematch between Alex and Perillo.
With Cavagnaro needing to win 2 games, it seemed like an arduous task, but he was up to it. He started off very strong in the first game, but Perillo made a late game comeback and actually had a chance to win it in the tenth with a double, but his first shot came up high and they were headed to a one game, winner-take-all finale. That last game stayed close all the way through, with Perillo holding a slight 13 pin edge heading into his 9th frame. With a strike in the ninth, one in the tenth and then count, he had a chance to lock it out. Nerves be damned, Perillo did just that, crushing his shots in the 9th and 10th frames and taking home his first ever LIUSBC Masters crown with a 238-214 final game win.
