Gateway sports notebook: Gators boys bowling team moves to 6-1

By: Michael Love
Sunday, January 21, 2024 | 11:01 AM

The Gateway boys bowling team kept pace with East section leader Franklin Regional by sweeping Valley, 7-0, in a match last Wednesday (Jan. 17) at New Great Valley Lanes in North Versailles.

The Gators (6-1) posted eight games better than 200, with sophomore Jordan Trenga collecting games of 211, 205, and a match-best 236 for a 652 series.

Junior Landon Lohr was right behind Trenga with a 234 third game, and he fell one pin short of 200 in game 2. He opened with a 182 and finished with a 615 series.

Also firing 200-plus games were junior Allon Wallace Jr. (202, 209), junior Joey Jurczak (212) and senior Alex Keeling-Oliver (211).

Gateway, with its 6-1 record after seven matches, is in line to grab one of the two automatic qualifying spots from the East section to the WPIBL boys team championships Feb. 14.

The individual championships for the boys are Feb. 21, and to make it to that tournament, a bowler must average 170 or better and roll 21 of his team’s 30 games over the 10 matches.

So far, Jurczak, Keeling-Oliver, Wallace Jr. and Lohr have met those requirements.

Sophomore Chase Owens is just shy of the 21 required. He does have the necessary average with a 191.71 through 17 games.

He also rolled games of 182 and 199 as part of the Gateway boys contingent at the Saint Vincent College Bearcat Challenge high school event Jan. 9 at New Great Valley.

Keeling-Oliver led the way with games of 203 and 243 to finish sixth in the individual standings.

The Gateway girls (2-6) again were shorthanded last Wednesday and fell to Valley, 7-0.

Senior Autumn Keeling-Oliver rolled a 184 high game as part of a 429 series.

Fellow senior Gelsey Stone finished with a team-best 438 series which included a 170 high game.

Both are in qualifying position — at least a 140 average and 21 games — for the WPIBL girls singles championship on Feb. 22.

Marsh receives award

WNEP/22 the Point, through its fall television broadcasts of high school football games, selected scholar-athletes from each school and recognized them as the respective scholar-athletes of the week

Gateway senior Blake Marsh, who pulled double duty this past fall as a forward for the soccer team and a kicker for the football team, was selected during one such game.

He then was placed in a pool of the weekly winners as a candidate for the season-ending scholar athlete of the year, and with his credentials in both academics and athletics, Marsh was not going to be denied.

The WNEP/22 the Point television crew surprised Blake by delivering the $5,000 award check in a ceremony Jan. 12 in the Gateway High School library.

Marsh was a dangerous scoring threat for the Gateway boys soccer team in the fall and was named to the Section 4-3A Finest 15 after helping lead the Gators to the WPIAL playoffs for a program-record fourth season in a row.

On the football field, Marsh kicked off and handled field goals and extra points. He booted a 34-yard field goal in Gateway’s 35-31 WPIAL Class 5A first-round loss to Moon.

Marsh is having a standout winter season on the ice for the undefeated Gators. The defenseman has helped put up a front which had allowed just 24 goals in 13 games.

Gateway hockey is rolling

While the Gators hockey team leads the way in scoring defense in Division 3 of the PIHL JV Tier 3, the offense has not stopped since the season began in late September.

Gateway (12-0-1) averaged 6.5 goals in 13 games through a 6-1 victory over Montour last Monday (Jan. 15) at the Robert Morris University’s Island Sports Center.

The Gators led Montour, 1-0, after one period of play but were not denied three times in the second period as they took control.

Marsh had just one goal coming into the game, but he erupted for a hat trick against the Spartans.

He scored in the first period and early in the second to stake Gateway to a 2-0 lead and then capped the Gators’ scoring with an even-strength tally 12:31 in the third.

CJ Evans was kept off the scoresheet in terms of goals scored, but he did provide help on Marsh’s first and second goals as well as a Brendan Luptak power-play tally that put Gateway up 3-0.

The three assists gave him 14 for the season to go along with 24 goals. Both totals ranked him first in JV Tier 3.

Evans was unstoppable with five goals in both a 9-5 win at Norwin on Nov. 3 and a 9-2 win over Carrick on Dec. 4.

Gateway’s only blemish this season was a 2-2 tie against Carrick on Dec. 27.

The Gators had a close call against Deer Lakes on Dec. 22. Jakob Williams tallied the game-winner early in the third period off an assist from Evans.

The Lancers outshot Gateway, 24-17, but the defense and Seth Hunkele were able to stand tall. Hunkele made 23 saves in the game, and he was 8-0 through 11 games played.

The Gators are at Palmer Imaging Arena Friday for a matchup against West Allegheny. Gateway defeated the Indians, 8-3, on Oct. 16 at the RMU Sports Center.

Swim teams post wins over Hempfield

The Gateway boys and girls swimming and diving teams swept nonsection Hempfield on Jan. 16.

The boys won 109-75 to improve to 7-2 on the season. It was their sixth victory in a row. The girls upped their overall record to 5-3-1 with a close 94-89 win over the Spartans.

Both teams are 2-0 in Section 3-3A. They swept meets with Penn Hills on Jan. 11 and Oakland Catholic/Central Catholic on Jan. 4.

Gateway was to face section rival Fox Chapel on Tuesday.

The Gators will meet Baldwin in a section meet Feb. 1.

Numerous Gateway boys and girls swimmers and divers have posted WPIAL individual and relay qualifying marks. Sophomore Gunner Raymer and seniors Mallory and McKenna Brown finalized goals of achieving qualifying times in all eight individual swim events through the team wins over Penn Hills.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

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