Spencer Ponto and Cylis Hendrickson knew they would have to be at their best.
The duo standing between them and a berth in the Youth Bowling Canada five-pin national championships - Brenden Bachmeier and Jacob Garcia of Surrey - had beaten them twice in round-robin match play. But now, with the teams tied at the top of the standings with eight points, a roll-off for the junior boys provincial title was required.
In the roll-off, March 4 in Kelowna, Ponto and Hendrickson of Prince George's Nechako Lanes finally beat Bachmeier and Garcia. In the final head-to-head showdown - the one that came with a ticket to nationals - the Nechako boys won 412-378.
"At the end, we got them," said the 14-year-old Ponto, who is in his fourth and final year in the junior division and wanted to make the most of the provincial opportunity.
"I was really focused," he said of his mindset in the playoff match. "I was saying, 'I'm done with being second or third, I want be first,' so I concentrated my hardest.
"I was shaking and I was happy (when we won) because I knew this was once in a lifetime. I was very happy and I realized most kids don't get to go to nationals."
Hendrickson, also 14 but only in his third year in the junior category, "still can't believe" he and Ponto made it to provincials, never mind nationals, which run Saturday through Monday in Regina. Going into that B.C. roll-off, Hendrickson said he felt he and his partner had an edge over Bachmeier and Garcia.
"I think we had a little advantage there because we lost twice to them, with not the best games, and so they probably thought that we were bad," Hendrickson said. "They were probably a little cocky and then when we were bowling they weren't cleaning up their pins and that's when me and Spencer got in there and took advantage."
Ponto has been bowling for seven years and Hendrickson for five. For both, this will be their first time at a national final. Playing as Team B.C., they will take on bowlers from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Northern Ontario, Southern Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland. After 10 matches (one point for a win, a half point for a tie) the top three teams will advance to the stepladder playoffs. In the stepladder, the third- and second-place teams will battle in a semifinal for the right to face the top seed for the Canadian crown.
Ponto and Hendrickson are guided by longtime youth bowling coach Ed Stepski, who has taken several teams to nationals over the years. In Stepski's view, the Nechako twosome has the necessary attributes to do well against the best players Canada has to offer.
"They really gel together and they both listen, and that's huge," he said. "If they're missing a little bit and you tell them to make a little bit of a change they adapt to it and they do it. I knew we had a good chance at provincials but when those (Surrey) guys beat us twice in a row I thought this was going to be tough and then we had to play them again. I just told the boys, 'It's payback, it's time for us to turn this around.' And they just went to work and did it. They did well."
Two other local bowlers, Kassidy Johnson and Paige Meise of Black Diamond Lanes, also qualified for nationals by claiming gold at the B.C. championships. They'll compete in the senior girls category in Regina. As part of a four-player team that included Megan Reimer and Lezzyl Aquino, they claimed national bragging rights in 2013 when they were juniors.
