Guzman, Anders help Souderton qualify for district at SOL Boys Championships

FRANCONIA >> For Quinn Guzman, Monday was not the time to be flashy on the golf course.

“There’s no reason to take crazy risks, because the cut’s going to be a pretty high number,” the Souderton senior said. “So, really just do what you need to do, don’t get crazy.”

Guzman kept it simple, his 15 pars and three bogeys giving him a 3-over 75 at Indian Valley Country Club to tie for the second best round at the Suburban One League boys championship with teammate Dawson Anders and Upper Dublin’s Jack Melville.

“It took some strategy because a lot of mud balls, there was some pretty bad situations where there was just huge chunks of mud on the golf ball and it really makes you choose different types of shots,” Guzman said. “So, it was one of those, keep it around the greens and hit the greens, make two putts and make your pars in some situations.”

Central Bucks South’s Jake Fitts had the best overall and SOL Continental round, finished at even-par 72 while Guzman and Anders helped Souderton earned the SOL’s fourth entry into the District 1-AAA team championship.

Along with Guzman and Anders’ 75s, Anthony Barr and Nicholas Scott both carded 79s to give the Indians a total of 308 to better Wissahickon’s 315.

“It was great that we could do it with only four people, too. I didn’t know if we didn’t know if we could bring a fifth guy or what, but I guess we didn’t need it today,” Anders said. “We all had to play pretty good and we all stepped up.”

Anders, Guzman and Scott all made districts last year for Souderton,with Anders coming a shot short of making the playoffs for a spot in the PIAA East Regional.

“I feel good with the way I played,” said Anders of his round Monday. “I just played smart and safe, didn’t really go for many tough shots.”

Wissahickon had a league-high six golfers earn one of the SOL’s 40 qualifying spots for districts, which will be held Oct. 12-13 at Turtle Creek Golf Course in Limerick. Noah Harrington and Greg Welsh both shot 77 to lead the Trojans.

“It was good. Played decent, nothing really special, but nothing too bad. I limited myself,” Harrington said. “Gets you through, gets the job done, but more things to come in a couple weeks, hopefully.”

Phil James was a shot back at 78, Matt Graeff and Thomas Clements had 84 while David Kovacs earned one of the final two district spots — Council Rock North’s Robert Scott taking the other — in a playoff among the seven golfers who finished at 85. Wissahickon can clinch the outright SOL American Conference title Tuesday with a win over Upper Dublin at Meadowlands Country Club. The league’s three conference champs earn spots in the district competition.

“It’s a big match tomorrow, but we’re looking pretty good,” Harrington said. “All we got to do is just play well and we’ll win and advance on and hopefully get as far as we can as a team, but should be fun and should be a great match.”

Upper Dublin had four golfers qualify — Melville, the top SOL American finisher, David Kim (77), Joe Kim (82) and Brandon Jensen (83). Fellow SOL American side Plymouth Whitemarsh is also sending four to districts. John Hensel led PW with an 81, Jake Laudenbach shot an 82 wile Jake Butler and Matt April carded 83.

North Penn’s Andrew Lombardo and Ron Robinson earned another chance to play at the district level with Lombardo pacing the Knights with an 80.

“He didn’t play bad, he said he hit the ball extremely well, he just couldn’t score today,” said North Penn coach Dave DiValentino of Lombardo.

Robinson finished with an 81, while NP’s Matt Pickford qualified with an 84. North Penn will also compete as in the team championship at Turtle Creek after splitting the SOL Continental title with CB South and earning the district spot for the first time since 2001 via tiebreaker.

“We were just pumped we got seven guys in (SOLs), we haven’t done that as long as I’ve been coaching,” North Penn coach Dave DiValentio said. “So, that was a huge step for us, plus having three guys move plus our team will be able to play at districts this year, so that’s exciting.”

Central Bucks West and Hatboro-Horsham each qualified two golfers. For West, Luca Jezzeny had an 80 while Reid Moncada collected an 83. Max Griffith and Jack McCormick each shot an 84 to make districts for the Hatters.

Also qualifying were Pennridge’s Andrew Simpson (79), Matt Shur of Abington (82), Cheltenham’s Stephen DeFrancis (83) and Colin Walsh of William Tennent (84).

Lukas Clark of Council Rock South had the best round in the SOL National Conference, his 78 besting teammate Griffin Smith by two strokes.

The Suburban One League holds its girls championship Tuesday, Oct. 6 at LuLu Country Club in Glenside.