Sep 29, 2014 3 min read

Alec Stopperich finished fourth during the WPIAL Class AAA individual championships for boys’ golf. The Peters Township junior entered the finals played at Latrobe Country Club as the favorite, having shot the lowest score during qualifying action.

Stopperich, who had fired a 1-under-par 71 during the district semifinal held at The Club at Shadow Lakes, fired an 8-over-par 80 during the WPIAL finals and tied for fourth place with Taylor Allderdice’s Sasha Lobel. Fox Chapel’s Anthony Cordaro defeated Indiana’s Kyle Grube in a one-hole playoff for the title. Both carded 77s during regulation play.

Stopperich is now qualified for the western regional to be held Oct. 14 at Tom’s Run Golf Course at Chestnut Ridge Golf Resort in Blairsville. It is the next step toward a PIAA title. The PIAA championships are set for Oct. 20-21.

Of his performance in the WPIAL tournament Stopperich said, “I just knew I had to come out and play my game. I did everything I could to get the win. Obviously, I had confidence because I’ve been playing well lately, but I couldn’t get it done. The greens were tough. The course played really hard. It’s just about surviving and moving on.”

Because he missed the cut, shooting a 90, Jake Sollon did not make the cut with his teammate, however, Ben Morgret did. The Peters senior shot an 84 and finished tied for ninth overall with three other golfers.

“These were some of the fastest greens I’ve seen anywhere,” Morgret said of the course, which is owned and designed by Arnold Palmer. “It’s a course where if you aren’t on the fairway, you’re under a tree. It brings all aspects of your game out. I put it on a lot of fairways, which helped me.”

The back nine did not help Stopperich in his quest for the gold medal. After bogeys on 13, 14 and 15, he finished with three straight pars. He capped off his performance by sinking an 8-foot putt as Palmer watched the finishers from a golf cart near the No. 18 hole.

Lou Olsakovsky of Upper St. Clair (89), Chartiers Valley’s Gino DiPardo (89), Drew Harris (90) and Connor Wasson (94) all competed in the finals but did not advance to the western regional.

PT undefeated

Peters Township completed an undefeated regular season in boys’ golf with an impressive, 176-192 victory against Mt. Lebanon. With the win, the Indians finished 18-0 overall. They were undefeated Section 7 champions with a 10-0 slate.

Ben Morgret and Conner Schmidt led the way against Lebo. Both fired a 1-under-par 34 at the Mt. Lebanon Golf Course. Juniors Alec Stopperich and Jake Sollon matched par while Hunter Bruce finished with a 38 for the Indians.

Tanner Johnson contributed to the triumph while Christian Ordonez and Alex Martin competed in exhibition matches.

For the Blue Devils, Gabe Nass and James Newman carded 36 scores. Sam Bellini followed with a 39 while Christian Vietmeier and Stephen McFarland finished with 40 and 41 totals.

The Indians led the list of teams into the WPIAL team tournament. Action commences this week with semifinal action. The WPIAL championships for all divisions will be held Oct. 9 at Cedarbrook Country Club. The PIAA qualifying round will be played Oct. 14 and the state championships are set for Oct. 20-22.