Many, Blatti help Prospect get the edge

The top four golfers for Prospect were shooting a combined 162 at the break of Tuesday's Class 3A Elk Grove boys golf regional at Fox Run.

"After the front nine, I talked to each one of them and they felt like they could hold where they were," Prospect coach Tom Martindale said.

It's a good thing they didn't.

Ben Many and Bill Blatti shot a combined 7 strokes better on the back nine. And Prospect ultimately needed every one of those strokes to edge Leyden 323-324 for the third and final spot in next Tuesday's Hersey sectional at Old Orchard Golf Club.

"It's such a heartbreaker for Leyden," Martindale said. "They have a really nice team. It feels good to be on the other side of that fence, but I do have empathy for a team that comes that close. It's tough."

Blatti's frantic finish secured Prospect's sixth straight sectional appearance. The senior shot 4-over par for the first three holes on the back nine, but shot just 1-over on the final six holes.

"I was even on the par 5s and the par 3s today. That really helped me. Anytime you can improve on a side it feels a lot better," Blatti admitted.

Prospect was led by senior Ben Many's 77. He shot a 37 on a difficult back nine where most would be happy shooting a 40.

"It feels good to be able to play well for everyone else. I think we were all expecting to make it out as probably the third team."

Leyden had those same expectations.

"We thought that we'd comfortably make it as a team to sectionals," Konrad Deka said. "Most of our guys didn't shoot as well as we expected them to shoot. We were surprised it was that close with how bad we played."

Deka's performance was anything but bad. His 74 placed him in the top eight and made him eligible to play in next week's regional.

But the senior wasn't thinking about his own success following the narrow defeat. Recalling the agony of failing to qualify for state by 1 stroke his junior season, Deka replayed his approach from 140 yards on the ninth hole of Tuesday's regional in his mind, wondering what if.

"I hit it perfectly. I thought it was going to be really close, and it just went over the green and into the bunker which caused me to bogey," he said.

Leyden coach Gene Trent understood his player's frustration.

"It's unfortunate because we had a group full of seniors and they deserve to go on further," Trent said. "A roll here or a roll there, that's the luck of the game."

Leyden senior Nick Cassano saw his career continue as well with a 78. But he didn't expect the outcome to shake out the way it did.

"I thought we were going to make it as a team so I was just thinking about playing good golf," Cassano said. "Then when it got down to it, I figured that I might need to save myself and play a bit better."

Bryan Senn's 80 and Matt Smith's 81 also figured into the scoring for Prospect.

Maine West's Ryan O'Connell (76) and Elk Grove's Brian Jones (81) qualified individually for next week's sectional.