Brewer, BC Patriots, GSA capture crowns; Archer, Gee share 1st

HERMON – By the time Saturday’s Penobscot Valley Conference golf championships wrapped up, each golfer seemed to have his own tale of woe. In the windy, wet weather balls rolled off greens. Shots fell short or long or way off-course. And there were plenty of wet socks.

Golfers from 27 PVC high school teams braved gusty winds, drizzle and periods of steady rain at Hermon Meadow Golf Club to compete for conference titles and state championship berths.

Class A Brewer, Class B George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill and Class C Bangor Christian won PVC titles and automatic trips to the state team championships Oct. 13, while individuals with the top 27 scores, one for each team in the event, qualified for the state individual championships Oct. 20. All golfers with a score of 82 or lower qualified for the individual competition.

Bobby Archer of Ellsworth and Nokomis of Newport’s Devon Gee were the co-medalists, each shooting a 75 at the par-72 course.

Many golfers said they had played in rain before, but wind gusts of up to 40 mph were much harder to deal with.

“We had a slight downpour there for a while but the wind was bad,” said GSA senior Noah Tapley, who shot an 80. “I played the ball a little left because the wind was going left to right, and just hit it and pray.”

In Class A, Josh Kochis and Joel Barrett each shot a 78 to lead the Witches to the PVC Large School crown. Brewer scored a 318.

“I thought we had a good chance to do it,” Barrett said. “We have really good golfers, we’re all equally talented and any day our sixth man can shoot as low as our two man.”

Barrett’s outing started out slow and heated up. He started with double bogeys on seven and eight, but came back with birdies on nine and 10.

Kochis didn’t have a good start, either. He four-putted the first hole and double-bogeyed the second hole.

“I just thought, I can’t be doing this all day,” he said. “So after that I got consistent with a couple of birdies and a few pars.”

Brewer golfers Justin Boober (80) and Keith Walton (82) also qualified with Kochis and Barrett for the state individual meet.

The Bangor and Nokomis teams tied with 333 but the Rams earned the state championship spot by virtue of the tiebreaker, which gives the higher place to the team with the lowest No. 5 golfer. Bangor’s Casey Civiello shot a 91, edging Nokomis’ fifth golfer by two strokes.

Tim Hardy, whose 76 was good for third place overall, was the Rams’ only state individual qualifier. Rather, Bangor relied on consistent scores from all five of its golfers.

The Class A golfers will play for the state titles at Lakewood Country Club in Skowhegan.

Class B George Stevens is headed to the team championship by virtue of its 327. Class B sends a total of four teams to states, and Stearns of Millinocket, Hermon and Bucksport all qualified.

The Eagles, who were 5-5 in matches this season, will make their first state appearance since 1998.

Brandon Allen, who also tallied an 80, and Tapley were GSA’s top golfers.

“We didn’t expect it to turn out this well,” said Tapley, a senior. “We were just hoping to make it and we all ended up playing pretty good. Our five man [Tyler Weeks] shot an 82, which was pretty unexpected. … We didn’t think we were going to put it together but we did.”

Tapley was even after the first nine holes and stayed even after 12, but that’s when the worst wind and rain of the day hit. He managed to par only one hole after the 12th.

“The back killed me,” he said. “The last six holes hurt me.”

Hermon’s Thomas McGown hit a hole-in-one on the par-3 third hole.

Both Class B and Class C teams will play at Natanis Golf Course in Vassalboro for their state championships.

In Class C, Bangor Christian scored a 339, beating out Dexter (342) for the top spot, but the Tigers also qualified for states.

The Patriots’ top golfer was Dave Chrisos, who shot an 82. He was 7-over after 11 holes but came out of his funk with pars on five of the final six holes starting with a par on the 13th.

“That really helped me and boosted my confidence,” Chrisos said. “After that I started driving the ball well and sticking my irons.”

Travis Hall led Dexter with an 81.