Expand<\/a><\/p>\nGREENFIELD TWP. \u2014 When it mattered most, Cole Powell finally got a putt to fall.<\/p>\n
The Scranton Prep junior and defending PIAA Class 2A champion eagled the first playoff hole to defeat teammates Brendan Bell and Bobby Stott and win the Bob Simons Classic on Monday at Elkview Country Club. All three shot 1-under 71 during regulation.<\/p>\n
Bell birdied the playoff hole to finish second and Stott made par to wind up third. With the trio leading the way, the two-time defending PIAA Class 2A team champion Cavaliers captured the team title with a score of 288. Abington Heights was second (299), Lakeland third (308), Honesdale fourth (319) and Holy Cross was fifth (330).<\/p>\n
Last year, Scranton Prep won the team title with a score of 298.<\/p>\n
\u201cCole hadn\u2019t really made too many putts today and was a little off,\u201d Scranton Prep coach Christi Dorece said. \u201cI said to his dad, \u2018Now would be as good time as ever to make a nice putt\u2019 and he did, of course. I had no doubt.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll my boys played really well, I\u2019m so proud of them. To finish 10 shots better than last year is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lakeland\u2019s Mikey Pisarcik shot even-par 72 to finish fourth and take low senior honors. Pat Lavelle from Riverside shot 84 and was low freshman.<\/p>\n
Playoffs were needed to determine low junior and low sophomore. Abington Heights\u2019 Sebastian Meyer shot 75 and won on the first playoff hole over Scranton Prep\u2019s Matthew Haggerty to claim low junior. Abington Heights\u2019 William Yoo also shot 75 and defeated teammate Cole Severs in a playoff for low sophomore.<\/p>\n
Playing the 477-yard, par-5 first hole in the playoff, Powell hit his drive into the rough along the right side. But he hit a 6-iron on his second shot to within 15 feet and made the putt for eagle to claim the title.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt great to get that final putt to drop,\u201d Powell said.<\/p>\n
During regulation, Powell started on No. 1 and birdied two of his first three holes. However, he had bogeys on Nos. 4, 5 and 9 to finish the front nine at 1-over 37. But on the back nine, he had birdies on Nos. 14 and 17.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t really get much putts to fall,\u201d Powell said. \u201cIt was kind of frustrating, but I stayed in it and on the back nine I shot 2-under with two birdies and two bogeys to get into the playoff. It was a solid back nine.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy second shot into the green on 14, I put to about 15 feet and had an easy tap-in birdie to get back to even. That kind of gave me momentum. Also, I saved par on 15. Made about a 6-to-8-footer for par. That shifted the momentum for the last few holes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winning the title means a lot to Powell since it came at his home course. It also kept the crown at Scranton Prep. Ben Boyanoski won the Simons the past two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels great because the first couple of years I didn\u2019t do great at my home course,\u201d Powell said. \u201cObviously, it feels great to come out on top for the first time on the home turf.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell started on No. 6. He birdied the 484-yard, par-5 No. 8, had bogeys on Nos. 12 and 15, but used birdies on Nos. 17 (463 yards, par 5) and 1 to finish 1-under and earn a spot in the playoff.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hit 17 greens in regulation. I just couldn\u2019t really get the putter going,\u201d Bell said. \u201cI played a solid round, had some painful misses on the green, but got it done to get into the playoff.\u201d<\/p>\n
There, he hit what he called \u201ca really good drive, probably the best of the day,\u201d but came up a bit short on his second shot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI left myself a good yardage in and hit the shot I wanted. I just misjudged the wind and came up a little short,\u201d Bell said. \u201cI had a pretty easy chip shot onto the green and put it to around four feet and I ended up making the putt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stott started on No. 2 and had to rally to make the playoff. A bogey on the 192-yard, par 3 No. 16 had him at 2-over. But he eagled the 463-yard, par-5 17th to get to even-par, then birdied his final hole, No. 1, to join his teammates in the playoff.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy first couple holes were shaky. I kept missing drives, but hit a couple good wedge shots to come back,\u201d said Stott, who also had birdies on Nos. 3, 4, 11 and bogeys on Nos. 2, 6, 8, 14. \u201cI had a bad stretch of bogeys and coming in I knew I had to make an eagle, a birdie or something. On 17, I hit a good drive and I knew the only way I would get close is if I made an eagle and I did. Hit a good drive on 18 that I thought was down the middle, but I kind of got under a tree. I had to punch out and had a nice up-and-down (for par).<\/p>\n
\u201cComing down No. 1, I knew I had to make a birdie at least to get into a playoff. I hit a good drive and then two-putted.\u201d<\/p>\n
His drive in the playoff was down the left side and he put his second shot on the green about 40 feet from the hole. However, he missed his putts for eagle and birdie to wind up finishing third.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew Cole was going to tap-in or make it because his line was through mind,\u201d Stott said. \u201cI just hit it hard and missed it on the left side. Then missed it coming back. But I can\u2019t be mad. Both my teammates were first and second. The team played good today. That\u2019s all that matters. Hopefully we can have a good year here and maybe win states again. It\u2019s exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
A total of 134 golfers and 23 teams competed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLE POWELL, Scranton Prep Abington Heights\u2019 Connor O\u2019Malley-Kalinoski putts on No. 10 during the Bob Simons Classic Golf…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-267218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-high-school-sports","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"COLE](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/STT-L-GOLFPOWELL-XXXX.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Abington](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/STT-L-GOLF-0818-05.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"West](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/STT-L-GOLF-0818-02.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Scranton](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/STT-L-GOLF-0818-04.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Montrose\u2019](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/STT-L-GOLF-0818-03.jpg?w=620\")
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