The Streetsboro Rockets boys’ golf team’s goal this season was to capture outright ownership of the Metro Athletic Conference title this season. The Rockets will not end the season as the sole champions but still snagged a share of the MAC title when they finished as the runners-up at the MAC tournament by carding a team score of 356 last Thursday at the Racoon Hill Golf Club in Kent.
“It was great for the kids,” said Coach Bruce Thomas. “It has been a long time coming and they have been working really hard. I knew we would be good this year especially after the way we finished last year. The kids worked really hard and we have a lot of kids back next year so we are hoping for good things again next year and the years to come.”
Junior Bryce Pocek led the Rockets by shooting an 84, finishing in third place overall, followed by junior Brett Epple who placed fifth by carding 86, senior Zach Schramm took 10th place by recording a score of 92 and sophomore Dominic Marcini tallied a score of 100.
It marks the first time in school history that the Streetsboro boys’ golf team has won any sort of league title. The MAC title was determined by a point system. For every regular season duel won against a conference rival, a MAC team would receive one point.
By recording a 13-1 record against the league in the regular season, the Rockets tallied 13 points prior to the MAC tournament with Norton recording 12 points by compiling a 12-2 record. The winner of the conference tournament would receive seven points while the runners-up would earn six points. The Panthers edged Streetsboro by 11 strokes to win the tournament, resulting in a two-way tie for the league title as each team finished with 19 points.
The 22nd-year coach acknowledged that his team wanted the MAC banner all to themselves but will settle for sharing it with Norton. He added that his squad is already eying wrapping up sole possession of the MAC title next season.
“I do know they wanted to win it outright and that is something that I think will motivate them to win it outright, but the league is going to be much, much better next year,” he noted. “A lot of the teams this year were young, and all of those kids are coming back.”
Although Streetsboro had three golfers finish in the top 10, Norton was led by freshman Braden Gunter, who finished as the individual champion by shooting a 76 and junior Matt Fowler, who finished as the runner-up by carding a score of 82.
“It is going to be hard to beat that unless you have kids who shoot that well.” Thomas said. “We had three kids that finish in top 10, but it was that those two kids shot so well and that made the difference for the 11 strokes.”
In addition to the Panthers having two players finish first and second respectively, Thomas said that the Rockets did not drive the ball well of the tee. While most of their drives avoided going out-of-bounds, they still hit the ball into some unwelcome areas.
“We just did not hit the ball as well as we have been hitting the ball year and that is the game of golf,” he said. “Sometimes that happens but our kids were able to recover and we only got beat by 11 strokes and two of those kids shot really well.”
Despite their struggles on drives, Thompson said his team recovered and avoided blow-up holes, taking second place and a share of the conference title.
Although the Panthers had their best two scorers finish at the top of the leaderboard, Pocek kept Streetsboro within striking distance by being the Rockets’ leading golfer.
“Bryce has been playing really well,” he said. “He did the same thing against Akron Springfield when we played at their place this year and did the same thing at Norton when we played at our place. He just plays the game and if anybody knows golf, most of the damage is done between your ears and that is when you get into so much trouble, so he has done a nice job of playing golf and letting the game come to him and not forcing anything.”
After one of the most successful golf seasons in program history, Thompson said his squad will need to prepare being the team that other squads will be chasing next year.
