TROY — The Piqua boys bowling team had a nearly perfect season coming to Troy Bowl Wednesday night for the regular season finale with Piqua.

But, the Trojans were at their very best and came away with a 2,397-2,148 win over Piqua.

Piqua, 14-2 overall, won the Miami Division regular season title with an 7-2 record and has a one game lead over Troy, 8-8 overall and 6-3 in the MVL, heading into Saturday’s MVL tournament at Beaver-Vu Lanes.

It was the Trojans fifth straight win after starting the season 3-8.

“We really struggled at the start of the season,” Troy coach Doug Stone. “We have really been bowling well lately and hopefully that will carry over to the MVL tournament.”

Piqua coach Craig Miller, whose team’s only previous loss was to Sidney, was disappointed but he knew the Indians would be in for a challenge.”

“Troy is a really good team,” he said. “They had some tough breaks. They had to bowl Fairborn at Fairborn and we had Fairborn at our place (Breakpoint Lanes) which are really tough conditions. Are only loss before tonight was Sidney, where they were on and we had a bad night. So, we could have easily came in here undefeated.”

Troy opened an 81-pin lead after the opening game and never looked back.

“They rolled a 926 and a 1,051,” Miller said. “They have some great lanes to bowl on here at Troy Bowl. We knew this was going to be a tough match.”

Troy didn’t let up in the baker games, with scores of 211 and 209 compared to Piqua’s 103 and 134.

“To be over 200 in both baker games is pretty good,” Stone said. “We really bowled well tonight.”

Bryce Massingill, who started with six in a row in the second game, led Troy with games of 190 and 244 for a 434 series and Carson Hillman had games of 201 and 225 for a 426 series.

Logan Smith had games of 173 and 224 and Kyle Wickman had games of 181 and 211.

Ryan Kaiser rolled a 181 and Cooper Gerlach added a 147.

Dylan Jenkins caught fire for Piqua in the second game and rolled a 174 and 248 for a 422 series.

Collin Snyder had games of 203 and 184 and Brayden Soliday added games of 192 and 173.

Austyn Potter had games of 141 and 202 and Connor Bollinger rolled games of 135 and 162.

“For sure (this is motivation to bounce back Saturday),” Miller said. “I have a lot of ocnfidence in my boys. Those lanes will be the same shot as sectionals. We have bowled those conditions twice this year. We didn’t do well the first time, but then we learned from that and adjusted the second time.”

And both teams will look forward to another challenge with the Miami Division title on the line.

Sports Editor Rob Kiser can be reached at [email protected]