BREWER – It started with the first box in the playoff round of the 2000 World Candlepin Team Championship at Bangor-Brewer Lanes Friday and didn’t stop until the last box of the second string.

By that point local favorites Maine Heat had pounded the Haverill, Mass.-based Team USA into thinking about the long drive home, even though they still had one string to go.

“They came out of the gate and just flooded us,” Team USA captain Mike Morgan said.

Where’s a little Dutch boy when you need one? Maine Heat won the first string by 49 pins and then extended their lead to 112 after two strings. By that time Team USA was asking for directions that would take them quickest to I-395 west.

The Heat’s Shawn Morrison started the onslaught with marks in the first four boxes and watched as teammate Nate Nealey marked in six of the first seven boxes.

“One of the main jobs of the first bowler is to get your team pumped up,” Morrison said.

The Orrington native also closed out the first string with a flurry when he went spare, strike, spare in the final three boxes for a final 149.

Nealey was close behind with a 142.

But Maine Heat is used to high scores. They led the round robin portion of the tournament with a total pinfall of 20,429 while finishing third in the Varney GMC Division of the tournament. Three members of the team, Morrison, Charles Milan III and Russ Nealey average 125 or better per string with three other bowlers in the 122-123 range.

Still, team captain James Milan has taken a wait-and-see approach to the tournament. Each year, he pointed out, the team goes into the world championship with big expectations but the bowlers haven’t lived up to their potential.

“I really am worried about the future of the team. We have to show something this year. I’m tired of bowling and losing,” he said.

But Friday Maine Heat showed a killer instinct when they followed their first-string bombardment of the No. 4 seed from the Holiday Inn Division with a second string that produced a 63-string win.

Morrison, who would finish the match with a three-string total of 430, closed with a strike, spare, strike in the last three boxes for a 147 total and James Milan marked in five of the last six boxes en route to a 134.

If Milan had a concern it would be that his team became a little too comfortable in the third string and gave back much of their lead, winning the match by just 20 pins 1,864-1,844.

“A good team like ours isn’t going to lose a string by 100 pins. But we didn’t concentrate enough in the third string. I think the win will give us confidence going into the quarterfinals,” Milan said.

The Heat will meet Massachusetts-based Lucky 7 in the quarterfinals, today at 9 a.m. Lucky 7’s roster includes former Maine Heat bowler Chip Carson of Bangor. Lucky 7, the fifth seed from the Holiday Inn Division, defeated the Cape Breton Merchants of Nova Scotia 1,841-1,754. Carson fired a 402 in the three strings.

The other quarterfinal matchup pits Bowlarama of Nova Scotia, who defeated defending champion MacLaughlin Truck and Trailer of Noval Scotia 1,889-1,830 against Vacationland Bowling Center of Biddeford who beat the New Hampshire All-Stars 1,917-1,848.

Top seeds Salisbury Big Stop of New Brunswick and Maria’s Sub of Scituate, Mass., await the quarterfinal winners at noon. The winners of the semifinal matches will meet at 2:30 p.m. in the champion match which is worth $10,000 to the winning team and $5,000 for the runner-up.