NORTHAMPTON – Belchertown’s undefeated golf season survived to the final group.
The Orioles and Northampton were tied after the first four positions entered their scores Tuesday at Northampton Country Club, meaning the final two pairings would decide the match, the Suburban East championship and Belchertown’s brush with perfection.
Northampton sophomore Jack Carpenter bested Brady Perkins 3-1 at No. 5 to pull the Blue Devils ahead, and Belchertown No. 6 Cal Orzech only beat Gus Fallon 2½-1½. That handed Northampton the match 12½-11½ and split the league title after the Orioles prevailed in their previous meeting a month ago.
“It was definitely looking forward to playing them the last match of the season, that’d be a pretty good way to end the season. That was definitely in the back of my mind,” Carpenter said. “It feels really nice to beat them.”
Belchertown’s Tyler McDonald earned the medalist honors after shooting a 37. He just edged Northampton No. 4 Ben O’Connor 2½–1½. O’Connor tied for the best Blue Devil score with a 38.
“I know they’ve got two fo the best golfers in Western Mass, maybe even the state,” McDonald said. “I felt really good, firing at pins and hitting putts.”
Galen Fowles led the way for Northapmton at No. 1 with a 38 and a 4-0 win against Riley Breen. He started off the day with an uncharacteristic eight on the Par 5 first hole. but responded with two birdies in his next three holes.
“I knew it was gonna be close match all the way, so having a rough start, I knew that I just needed to keep it together because I have the game to win my match out there, so if I don’t lose it mentally then I’m going to be okay,” Fowles said.
Reilly Fowles and Michael Murray drew the No. 2 match 2-2.
Belchertown’s Henry Poissant struck back at No. 3 with a 3½-½ victory over Jack Mattison Gulotta.
“We knew they were a good team, one of the best teams in D1,” Perkins said. “We knew we were going to have to play our best game.”
Northampton ended the season with a 12-match winning streak. The Blue Devils will now turn their attention to defending their Division 1 Western Massachusetts championship. The sectional tournament tees off at 10 a.m. Monday at Franconia Golf Club in Springfield.
“We’ve had good days but not enough of them,” Galen Fowles said. “We need to have our best stuff for Western Mass.”
Belchertown will tee off with the Division 2 field at the Ranch Golf Club at 10 a.m. Tuesday in South Hadley. The Orioles narrowly missed qualifying for the state tournament last season.
“We were really close last year,” McDonald said. “We definitely want to sneak in there.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.