ADAMS -- It started out rough for Drury's top two golfers, but a late turnaround and a solid team effort pushed the Blue Devils past Hoosac Valley, 158-165 on Wednesday at Forest Park Country Club.
Matt Lawrence shot a 1-over-par 35, and Alex Boulger finished with a 39. The scores were enough to survive a 31 from Hoosac's Chad Alibozek.
"I think Matt played really well today," Boulger said. "He started off bad, same with me, but we were able to finish strong and had a couple of great holes."
Boulger birdied the fifth hole and Lawrence hit a birdie on the sixth hole. Jeff Hancock also birdied the fifth hole for the Blue Devils on his way to shooting a 43. Nick Bator had Drury's other low score with a 41.
Lawrence bogeyed two straight holes before getting a birdie and managing to play even through the final three holes.
"It's focus, we all just have to focus," Lawrence said. "If we focus and buckle down, I really think we can beat anyone."
Hoosac's Mike Lemanski shot a 42 for the Hurricanes. Keith Pero shot a 45 and Matt Burdick had his team's fourth-lowest score with a 47.
Alibozek recorded birdies on the first, fifth and ninth holes on his way to medalist honors.
"My iron and wedge game is really good right now," Alibozek said. "It carried me. My putts from 15 feet out aren't falling, but I'm making some of them to save some shots."
The victory is the 11th of the season for the Blue
The score of 158 was the team's lowest score on a visiting golf course this season.
"We did actually come up and play here a couple days ago, it was a good practice round," Boulger said. "This is a tough course so we wanted to prepare. We just played our game [Wednesday], I think we all played good."
For Hoosac Valley, it guarantees their season will come to an end Friday against Mount Greylock. The Hurricanes needed two wins to qualify as a team for the Western Mass. tournament entering the Drury match. The team has six wins so far this year, just a year after a 14-win season.
"We've come a long way," Hoosac coach Jay Sniezek said. "At the beginning of the season, I didn't really expect to be in a position to make Western Mass. after losing a lot of seniors from last year's team."
A victory on Friday would mean the Hurricanes missed the postseason by one stroke. They lost to Monument Mountain by one stroke earlier in the season and tied Taconic, but lost on the tie breaker.
"You can't really look back at those," Sniezek said. "They've all really improved and the guys are young, so we'll look forward to next year."
To reach Sam Monroe, email
smonroe@thetranscript.com.
On Twitter: @NAT_DigitalSam
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