After two consecutive wins, the boys, unfortunately, broke their winning streak by losing to Lowell. Their streak was fueling the team’s energy and served as a great source of momentum. Now, they have to gather themselves and find another drive in order to continue winning.

Going into this game, the boys expected an easy win. During warmups, Andrew Matthews—a player on Lowell—said, “We are a new team this year,” to one of his teammates. I overheard this statement and didn’t think too much about it and decided to keep it to myself. Turns out, Lowell was a new team this year. The Red Arrow’s fourth and fifth bowlers truly showed up. They were both extremely focused and had their eyes on the prize.

The team lost both baker games. This brought the team’s morale down going into the individual games, which inevitably led to the demise of FHC’s winning streak. In the first individual game, the play coming from the Arrows intimidated the FHC bowlers. Their performance shocked the boys and they weren’t prepared to bowl their best game. Despite their best efforts, the ball started rolling too late. Along with the shock of talent, the oil pattern didn’t help the team much either. Oil patterns are a very complex thing. Anyone could master bowling on one but be terrible on another.

Senior Peyton Price commented on the oil pattern dilemma as he stated, “We’re very used to playing on the house shot oil pattern since we practice on it every day, so when we go into a match cold with a radically different pattern, it’s very difficult to adjust. Sometimes it’s not as simple as just hitting your mark.”

In the second individual match, there was the hope of winning the game overall. All the boys needed to do was win by 106 pins which is a very difficult task. They made it to 98 pins at one point but then Lowell fought right back to close the gap. The final score of the overall match [both baker games and individual games included] was close with a 30-pin difference.

At the end of the day, the Lowell boys wanted this win more than the boys and the team let its guard down. This Saturday, the boys bowling team will be at Fairlanes for the Zeeland East Invitational. There is word of Lowell being invited but this is not confirmed. If they will be attending, be sure to make it out to the match to watch the boys get their revenge and snap the Arrows.