North Gwinnett won with a four-man total of 292, highlighted by tourney runner-up Aydin Dossa’s 71, fourth-place Noah Zemmour’s 73 and 74s by both Justin Roberts and Nathanael Hawkins, who tied for fifth. Deen Mustic backed them up with a tie for 12th at 76 at The Providence Club.
Head coach Justin Bacile’s group improved on last year’s area-winning 300.
The Bulldogs will look to build on a 36-hole total of 625 in last season’s state championship, which placed them 10th in Class AAAAAA. The eye-opener at Providence Golf Club on Tuesday was the runner-up finisher, Norcross.
The Blue Devils shot a 306, securing their first top-two area finish since the 2012-13 campaign. Norcross didn’t crack the top five in any of the previous three area championships, but head coach Twoey Hosch’s group exorcised those demons in Monroe.
“I'm just so proud of them,” Hosch said. “For most of these guys, it’s been a four-year journey. We haven’t seen much success in the state tournament, but we’ve had a great season so far. We’ve won a few tournaments, we've competed in every tournament, so I knew they were going to have a big day and I’m just proud of the way they finished.”
To Hosch’s point, Norcross’ current roster hasn’t experienced a victory with as much magnitude as Tuesday afternoon’s. Nonetheless, it was Blue Devils of all ages contributing to the qualifying win.
“We've got three veteran guys — Frank Griffin, Jaykb Bellum and Ben Hester,” Hosch said. “They’ve kind of carried us all year, but the guy that stepped up today was our freshman, Davis Beck.”
Beck tied for fifth with a 74, and Hester tied for 10th at 75. Griffin tied for 14th at 77 and Belin tied for 19th at 80.
North Gwinnett and Norcross will be the county’s Class AAAAAA representatives at Bentwater Golf Club in Acworth on May 18 and 19 for the state tournament. Be... Click here to read full article
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