Stephano fires 72 to claim Junior Tour win at Paxon Hollow

   Radnor junior Blake Stephano made four birdies on his way to a 1-over-par 72 to capture top honors in the 16-to-18 division in a Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour stop at Paxon Hollow Country Club in Marple Township on a glorious August Wednesday.

   Stephano had two birdies on each side over the 5,708-yard, par-71 Paxon Hollow layout on his way to his first win of the season on the Junior Tour.

   If you saw a copy of the most recent Tri-State Golfer with a cover story on Paxon Hollow laying around down there Wednesday, I hope you enjoyed it, since I wrote it. It was a fun assignment for me from Joe Burkhardt, who publishes Tri-State Golfer, since I, like a lot of fledgling Delco golfers back in the day, grew up playing Paxon.

   Maxwell Rubin of Marlton N.J. was the runnerup to Stephano with a 3-over 74. Zak Summy of Media, Cortie Fischer of Villanova and Cole Shew finished tied for third, each carding a 5-over 76.

Will Horn of Narberth finished sixth with a 77, Luke Fayocavitz of Clarks Summit was seventh with a 79, Samuel Bertrando of West Chester and Will Keane of Newtown Square shared eighth place at 79 and Ethan Krohn of Berwyn rounded out the top 10 with an 82.

   Dylan Gooneratne of Plymouth Meeting, who has been playing solid golf all summer, matched Stephano’s 1-over 72 to win the 13-to-15 division. Gooneratne had four birdies, three of them in a sizzling 3-under 32 front nine.

   Connor Bennink of Kennett Square had two birdies, one on each side, to claim runnerup honors with a 3-over 74. Luke Watson of Royersford was third with a 76 and a couple of Newtown Square players, Jake Maddaloni and Jack Davis, finished fourth and fifth with respective scores of 78 and 80.

   Kevin Motil of Sewell, N.J. finished sixth with an 81, Ryan McCabe of Media was seventh with an 83, Ryan Kennedy of Wayne and Noah Sim of Ambler shared eighth place at 84 and Evan Drummond of Exton rounded out the top 10 with an 85.

   Christina Carroll of Bear, Del. carded an 88 to top the field in the girls 16-to-18 division with an 88. It was her fifth Junior Tour victory of the season. Olivia Wirsching of Blue Bell and Episcopal Academy senior Marykate Chambers shared runnerup honors, each finishing a shot behind Carroll with an 89.

   Amanda Heins finished fourth with a 106 and Kelly Brown of Coatesville took fifth with a 111.

Niosha Parvizi of Gladwyne was the only entrant in the 13-to-15 division and posted a 101.

Henry Stone of Kennett Square birdied the 12^th and the straight downhill par-3 17^th to best the field of nine-holers with a 3-over 39. Kristof Kopecky of Garnet Valley birdied the tough par-5 11^th on his way to runnerup honors with a 44.

   JP Hoban of Havertown finished third with a 46, Hank Kancher of Philadelphia was fourth with a 50 and Rhianna Gooneratne of Team Gooneratne from Plymouth Meeting was fifth with a 51.

   Samuel Cottone of Wayne finished sixth with a 52, Cyrus Parvizi of Gladwyne (younger brother of Niosha, I’m guessing) was seventh with a 54, Matthew Buckley of Media was eighth with a 58, and Heather Sanbower of Chambersburg and Christopher DiRita of Drexel Hill rounded out the top 10 as they finished tied for ninth at 59.