Mustangs unseat Lake Central

Updated: June 3, 2011 9:16PM

Since 2006, Lake Central had owned its sectional, winning five straight championships.

But the Indians’ last two titles came by a total of three strokes over rival Munster. And this year, the Mustangs finally found their way to the top.

Behind seniors Tony Rubino (77) and Danny Falloon (79), the Mustangs finished with a team score of 320, 10 strokes ahead of second-place Lake Central at Palmira on Friday.

“Lake Central is our rival, for sure. And I think they’d say the same thing,” a victorious Rubino said after the match. “It feels great to take the title from them … and we deserved it.”

“They are a very good team, a well-coached team,” said Munster coach Bill Smitka. “We lost to them by two strokes last year and just one stroke the year before that. I think that all evened out today.”

Munster, Lake Central and Hanover Central (team score of 340) all advanced to next week’s LaPorte Regional at Beechwood Golf Course.

“Everyone on our team is playing pretty well right now, but I know that we can play better,” said Falloon, who finished his day with three straight pars. “But I know that, once regionals come around, we’re going to take it up to the next level. If we put our best round together, I feel good about our chances in the first round.”

Early on in the sectional, the Mustangs struggled — including Rubino, who had three-double bogeys on the front nine.

“It was a real grind today,” he said. “But I think it all evened out in the end.”

Added Smitka: “We did a good job of hanging in there today. All of our guys got off to slow starts today. Our team’s really been improving as the season goes on. You want to be playing some of your best golf at this point in the season, and thankfully, we did that today.”

Lake Central’s TC Cameron was the top performer of the day, finishing with a 72. Hanover was led by Zach Sheehy, whose score of 76 was good enough for second place overall.

Also advancing to the regional round as individual qualifiers were Griffith’s Josh Kisfalusi (85) and a pair of Highland golfers: Seth Peters (89) and Nick Canham (89).

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