WATERFORD — The best part for Flint Kearsley bowling coach Bart Rutledge was that he didn’t really have to say a word.

After Kearsley fell behind New Boston Huron 2-1 in the best-of-five Baker game championship match for the Division 2 title, Rutledge quickly huddled his boys team.

Just as quickly, he left the huddle. 

There really was no inspirational speech needed for a group of bowlers who had been part of Kearsley’s team that won the last two Division 2 Finals, including last year when the Hornets rallied from an 0-2 deficit. 

“They took ownership of it,” Rutledge said of his bowlers. “I told them it’s not over, and they took it from there. They had their own huddle and told each other what they needed to say.”

Whatever was said certainly worked, as Kearsley stormed back to take the final two games (249-226 and 186-166) to make history. 

For the first time, the Kearsley boys team had won its third-straight Finals title. Pulling off that feat left Rutledge and his bowlers in tears as they hugged each other in celebration.

Junior anchor bowler Jameson Vanier shed way more tears over this team title than he did last year when he won the individual championship. 

“It feels nice to finally have the guys out there on the same platform as the girls,” said Vanier, referring to the girls program that entered this weekend having won nine of the last 11 Division 2 championships. 

After Kearsley won the first game 219-204, New Boston Huron rolled to a 248-168 win in the second and then took the third game, 217-203.

The fifth game was close until Kearsley started to separate after Huron failed to get a mark in the sixth, seventh and eighth frames. 

“Our spare shooting has been our downfall, and it came back to bite us,” New Boston Huron coach Larry Collins said. “The spares that were missed were by underclassmen, so they’ll learn from this. It stings, but they’ll get better.”

Eventually, Vanier stepped up in the 10th frame. All he needed was a mark to sew up the title.

He delivered a strike and then erupted in celebration along with his teammates and Kearsley supporters.

Vanier said he actually felt more pressure during that moment than at any time during his run to the singles title last year.

“It was 100 percent more,” he said. “Last year, I was just having fun. This year, it came down to the last shot, and I told myself that this was the exact place I want to be.”

Kearsley was the No. 2 seed out of the qualifying block and posted a five-game win over Madison Heights Lamphere in the quarterfinals, winning the fifth game 198-191. 

Kearsley then recorded a three-game sweep of Three Rivers to set up the championship match with Huron, which was the top seed out of qualifying.

Rutledge said through it all, he didn’t sense his squad felt any pressure trying to go for its historic three-peat. Not even seeing the Hornets girls fall in the semifinal round caused Kearsley to lose focus on its mission. 

“I never doubted it from the start,” Rutledge said. 

New Boston Huron earned a four-game win over league rival Carleton Airport in the quarterfinals before recording a three-game sweep of Sparta in the semifinals.

Click for full scores.