By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

FOLEY – The Thompson Warriors’ boys bowling team is headed for another state tournament appearance after making their way to the semifinals of the 2017 AHSAA South Regional Tournament in Foley Jan. 19-20.

The Warriors had a strong first day of the tournament finishing with a total score of 2,645 after day one, which was just shy of tournament leader Vestavia’s 2,752.

Thompson was led by an impressive performance from Brian Barcoma, who tallied a total score between three rounds of 604 points. That was good enough for the fourth highest total out of 49 bowlers in the tournament. He helped lead the Warriors to rounds of 854, 867 and 924 as Thompson took the No. 2 seed into the final day of regionals.

On the final day of action, the Warriors took down Houston Academy 853-667 in the first round and followed that up with a 766-640 victory over Indian Springs to advance to the semifinals where they met Stanhope Elmore.

The Mustangs came into the final day with the No. 3 seed just behind Thompson after posting a score of 2,559 in the first round of the tournament.

The Warriors jumped out to the early lead after going up 157-133 in the first frame, but struggled to maintain that success throughout the match. After rounds of 185-171 and 192-170, the Mustangs had taken a marginal 510-498 lead.

It looked at that point like it could go down to the wire, but Stanhope used a strong fourth frame of 152-109 to put things out of reach heading to the fifth and deciding frame.

Thompson ended up outscoring them 169-159 in the frame, but still fell by the final of 821-776 to fall in the semifinals. They did however advance to the state tournament, where they will look to make another strong run at a state championship.

The state tournament will take place Jan. 26-27 at Oak Mountain Lanes in Pelham.