Boys Bowling: Brother Martin sets school record, leads top seeds into bi-regional

KENNER – Brother Martin has dominated the boys bowling scene in the New Orleans area for the last five years. The Crusaders turned in perhaps their most dominant performance in that span on Monday.

Brother Martin rolled a school-record 3,960 series as the Crusaders topped Salmen 26-1 in the New Orleans regional at AMF All Star Lanes.

The top-seeded Crusaders joined No. 2 seed Holy Cross, third-seeded Archbishop Shaw and No. 4 seed Jesuit in advancing to the bi-regional tournament March 27, also at AMF, where 10 other teams from the Baton Rouge and Hammond areas will also bowl.

In the other matches to decide the bi-regional qualifiers, Shaw defeated Pearl River 24.5-2.5, Holy Cross knocked off Chalmette 17-10 and Jesuit topped Archbishop Rummel 21-6.

Brother Martin coach Bruce Himbert’s six-man lineup of Brennan Brouilette, Will Oertling, Hunter Dunn, Drew Gardner, Jonathan Fernandez and Cody Schaffer set the tone early with a 1,357 opening game, led by Oertling’s 256, as the Crusaders jumped to an 8-0 lead.

“I told our guys, ‘Don’t take them for granted.’ I was hoping we’d get out to a quick start, and we did.”

With Himbert sticking with the same lineup, Brother Martin put the match away in game two with another 8-0 sweep, led by Schaffer’s 259 and Dunn’s 258 to pace a 1,330 team score.

“When we shot what we shot,” Himbert said, “I felt like I needed to stay with these guys.”

With a record-breaking opportunity at hand, Himbert left his lineup untouched  again and the Crusaders closed with a 1,273 third game, led by Oertling’s 234.

The only thing missing on this day was a state record. The Crusaders fell 13 pins shy of Archbishop Rummel’s score of 3,973 set in 2013.

“We came up a little short (of the state record),” Himbert said, “but we bowled well.”

Dunn had a team-best 722 series, followed by Oertling with a 691, Schaffer at 657, Fernandez with a 656, Gardner’s 628 and Brouilette’s 606.

The other advancing teams turned in high scores as well.

Holy Cross shot games of 1,084 and 1,133 in building a match-clinching 14-2 lead after two games before Chalmette cut into the margin in the final game.

Zachary Handlin had a 251 opening game en route to a team-leading 603 series for the Tigers. Bryan Arena had a 593 set, including a 209 second game.

Sebastian Maher paced Chalmette with a 611 series.

Shaw had a season-best 3,631 series and jumped to an insurmountable 16-0 lead after two games in its victory over Pearl River.

Gage Perrin shot a 660 series for the Eagles, including a 245 opening game, to lead the Eagles, while Cadence Chesterman had a 628 and Joseph Jimenez had a 617. Quentin Bullie had a 231 opening game while Nick Reed shot a 255 in the final game.

Christian Kelch led Pearl River with a 570 series, including a 204 final game.

Jesuit had a 3,474 team series in avenging a regular-season loss to Rummel.

Adam Francis’ 227 opening game helped the Blue Jays jump to a 6-2 lead, and Jesuit got three games of 230 or more in the second game from Ben Hunn, Alex Barron and Jake Steigler to extend the lead to 13-3.

Steigler closed with a 231 to finish with a 659 series, while Hunn finished with a 211 game and 617 set. Barron had a 613 series.

Rummel’s Ruben Gendron had the high series in the match with a 701 on games of 278-223-200.

In earlier matches, Pearl River defeated St. Augustine, Salmen topped Bonnabel and Chalmette eliminated Holy Rosary to advance.

Brother Martin will get a first-round bye in the bi-regional and needs two victories to advance to the state semifinals, while the other three local teams will have to bowl first-round matches. The seeds will be finalized later this week.

“We go into any match, we can be beaten,” Himbert said. “Hopefully we can get by next week and get to the final four.”