JEDDAH - Ekis-9 ranked eighth in the opening round before breaking through to third and fighting fiercely to be right behind the reigning Kabalen Strikers in the next session until it seized the top spot on the closure of the first round in the 13th week of the FEDBG Friday Morning Bowling League 18th season at Bowling City here. The superb team management skills of skipper Ernie Geslani helped Ekis-9 on this dramatic sojourn. Contributing to Ekis-9 chance for the first round best finisher was their last opponent RL Titans which defaulted to give away points. Such no show of rivals boosted Zaldy Bacero to bowl undeterred with 647 on lines of 200, 232 and 215. Planking Bacero was Geslani himself with scores of 210, 209 and 213 for 632 series. The rest of 3,504 total output of Ekis was shared by Rey Beltran (579), Alma Bacero (561), Renato Gonzales (555) and Eugene Delfin (530) for perfect win points of 22 padding total session points of 47 to rule first round with 440.5 points. Kabalen Strikers also scored convincingly against Sagmit Dental Clinic but relinquished league leadership with 437 accumulated points. Causing most for Kabalen's 18-4 victory was Jojie Manalansan top scoring with 621 primarily backed up by TC Jayson Castillo with 600. Shirley Sagmit, Mhon Laxamana, Bonnie Garcia and Pancho Cuevas combined for the rest of Kabalen's 3,448-3,417 beating of Sagmit Dental Clinic whose defense was played well by Thong Langa at 621, Ding dela Rosa 599 and team manager Evelyn Santoc 572. Micah's Pride which had been top spot contender till the homestretch notched third with 431 computed points including their blanking of Superbowl Dozer at 22-0 (3,453-3,261) with Carling Constantino topping the board with 639. Paolo Allego (575) and TC/TM Ester Santoc (566) superbly backed up Constantino. Team chief James Monteleyola tried shielding Superbowl Dozer with 635 with a hi-game of 265. Defending champion BCT-Juraifani Pro Shop completed the round one red-liners when the Emil Payongayong-captained squad won 14-8 over Pin Busters headed by Richard Antonio and managed by Babes Tiongson. BCT-JBS Pro Shop upset rivals at 3,424-3,407. Payongayong and Edward Botardo primarily scored for BCT at 603 each, while Edison Arena (597) and Grace Funtillon (588) did the walling for the Pin Busters. BCT-JBS in-border themselves with 407 accumulated points. Placing fifth to 14th were Dabarkadz (396), Sagmit Dental Clinic (383), Pin Busters (380), Cool Guys (350), Pin Down (338), RL Titans (296.5), Jeddah Bowlers (279), ARCi-5 (268), FB Rhinos (254) and Superbowl Dozer.
