Pochet, Guerrini shoot 3-under as Rams top Vikings

LIMERICK >> Two of the area’s top high school golfers brought out the best in each other down the stretch Tuesday in a tight match between Perkiomen Valley and Spring-Ford at Turtle Creek Golf Course.

PV’s No. 1, senior Nate Guerrini, and Spring-Ford’s No. 1, sophomore Ben Pochet, matched birdies on holes 7 and 8. They finished tied with nine-hole scores of 3-under 33. It was what happens when top-notch talent, focus and competitiveness collide: a shootout.

“I don’t know if we intended to,” Guerrini smiled, “but that’s what it came down to.”

“It sort of had that kind of a feel to it,” Pochet said.

With the two top guns deadlocked after the smoke off their clubs had cleared, the match was decided by the respective Nos. 2 and 3 players. In those groupings there was a combined differential of five strokes, in favor of Spring-Ford, and that was the difference as the Rams won 192-197 over the Vikings.

Spring-Ford’s non-senior top-five scoring group, after Pochet, included No. 2 Connor Bohan (38), No. 3 Chase Armor (37), Jon Lunley (a freshman, 42) and Jack Straub (42).

Perk Valley’s support behind Guerrini included No. 2 Kyle Zahour (39), Dallen Hall (40), Mark Tornetta (41) and Stephen Ragusa (44).

Spring-Ford improved to 5-1 in the PAC-10, 6-1 overall, but definitely got a big push from the Vikings (3-4, 4-4), who have been ultra-competitive despite losing a dozen seniors from last year’s team, which beat Spring-Ford. Four of PV’s losses this season have come while shooting sub-200.

“We’ve been shooting pretty well as a team; we just run into really good competition,” PV coach Tavio Hunsicker said. “The league’s really strong, and it was another tough opponent today.”

Guerrini and Pochet displayed some mental toughness by never giving the other any room for error.

Guerrini, a district and regional qualifier last year and, like Pochet, first-team all-area, birdied the second and third holes, a par 5 and par 3. But his bogey on the par-4, 402-yard No. 5 after hitting into a trap, coupled with Pochet’s first birdie, pulled Pochet even with Guerrini.

“After Nate got off to a great start, I was thinking I’ve really got to turn it on here and start making some putts,” Pochet said.

“I knew I had to go under par today, so I put my mindset to go under par,” Guerrini said.

Both parred the 426-yard No. 6. Pochet faced a difficult 20-foot par putt there and afterward called it the most important shot of the round.

On the 349-yard No. 7, things got more interesting.

That first foursome, including Bohan and Zahour, stuck their approach shots. Guerrini birdied from about 17 feet, Pochet from 12.

“That birdie on five helped, but I think it was really the putt on six,” Pochet said. “It gave me confidence; I didn’t drop any shots. And then to roll the one in on seven… especially after Nate rolled that one in on seven.”

“The birdie on seven really got me going, because that was a tough putt downhill,” Guerrini said. “And once that rolled in I was feeling pretty confident.”

It showed on No. 8, a 516-yard par 5. Guerrini hit within 12 feet on his third shot. Pochet got even closer to the pin, about seven feet. Birdies for both.

Each parred the par-3 No. 9. Boham finished with his seventh par of the round and the Ram players in back stepped up when necessary.

“We have a freshman and a couple of kids that were on JV last year step up and make varsity. They’re all playing well and scoring for us,” Pochet said. “I think we have a solid team. We brought it today and got the job done.”

“It was a good match,” Spring-Ford coach Jeff Mast said. “PV beat us last year, and they’re always a good team, a good program.

“The league’s real competitive this year. We’ve been really consistent. We’ve been averaging about 192-193 — that’s pretty good stuff.”

And Hunsicker couldn’t complain at all about how his guys played and how they’ve competed all season .

“The way a lot of these guys stepped up has been really impressive, and the way they worked in the offseason,” Hunsicker said. “We’re a competitive team. We just couldn’t get over the hump against some of these really good teams in the league.”

“I didn’t expect us to be as close as we were today, but we all played pretty solid,” Guerrini said. “We met a better Spring-Ford team, and that happens.”