EXETER – Adam Motovidlak is sharpening his game as the most important days of the season approach both for his team and him individually.
Motovidlak shot 80 Sept. 28 at Fox Hill Country Club to win the Class AA boys portion of the Wyoming Valley Conference Pre-District Tournament by five strokes.
The junior was one of four players to qualify for Lake-Lehman, which will return to Fox Hill Monday to face Wyoming Seminary for the WVC Class AA team title and a spot in Friday’s District 2 team championship, also to be held at Fox Hill.
The performance in the Pre-District Tournament also means that Motovidlak, Tyler Scharff, Mike Sikora and Josh Tranell are headed to the District 2 Individual Tournament to be helped Oct. 12 at Elmhurst Country Club.
Motovidlak has been looking forward to that opportunity since missing a spot in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association East Regional last year when he struggled on the final two holes, then lost a playoff.
“I let emotions get the best of me,” Motovidlak said.
Adam, the son of Lake-Lehman coach Tom Motovidlak, put extra time into his game this summer with the intention of advancing further as an individual. That also helped him lead the way throughout a 9-1 WVC Division 4 championship season that put the Black Knights in the team playoffs as well.
With a return trip to the district individual tournament at stake, Adam Motovidlak started strong at Fox Hill, shooting a 1-over-par, 36, on the front nine for the best score by two strokes in any of the four divisions – Class AAA and AA boys and girls.
Motovidlak had three bogeys while making birdies with an up-and-down at the par-5 sixth and a 10-foot putt on the par-4 eighth to open a five-shot lead in Class AA. Even a triple bogey on the 11th hole, a par-3, could not keep Motovidlak from the comfortable win on a day when 92 was good enough to advance.
“I got off the tee real well,” he said. “My second shots were kind of hit and miss, but I was putting real well, too.”
Motovidlak said he will continue working on his game from 100 yards in to try to be as sharp as possible for the postseason matches ahead.
Lake-Lehman’s Scharff and Sikora each shot 89s to tie for ninth in the qualifier while Josh Tranell shot 90.
“I was happy that four of our five made it,” coach Motovidlak said.
With an 18-hole WVC Class AA championship ahead, those performances would have produced a team score of 348 on a day when Wyoming Seminary’s best four combined for a 345. It all adds up to the likelihood of a tight match Monday against the Division 3 champion Blue Knights, who went 10-0 in the regular season, including handing Lake-Lehman its only defeat, 167-179.
Connor Maloney, a Holy Redeemer player from Dallas, was eighth in the Class AA qualifier with an 88.
Colin Bowanko from Dallas and Brett Soltysiak from Tunkhannock reached the District 2 Tournament in Class AAA by shooting 84 to finish tied for eighth.
