L-L BOWLING TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
A title for Indians
Donegal tops Warwick in final to win championship in 2nd year in league
PHILIP GLATFELTER
FOR LNP | LANCASTERONLINE
Donegal’s starting five bowlers have all made key contributions this season. Tuesday, it was Nick Gehman’s turn.
The junior rolled 14 straight strikes over two games in the final against Warwick as the Indians won the Lancaster-Lebanon League team title at Cain’s Lanes.
“Oh my God, I can’t tell you, it’s amazing,” said Gehman, a junior who actually had the lowest average of the starting five at 198, about winning the title. “Especially being a new team. It’s amazing. I love the team.”
After a rough start in the first game that included two opens in the first three frames, he finished with eight straight strikes for a 237 in a 1,053-1,027 win.
Gehman opened Game Two with six strikes en route to a 232 as the Indians won 1,006-911.
“He was in a groove,” Donegal coach Paul Stubenrauch said of Gehman. “He threw two balls all day. He went to the black ball and … he went on quite a run.”
The win capped a league season that saw the Indians, in just their second season in the L-L, notch the best record at 81-10 — after going 91-0 last year — to repeat as Section Three champions and capture the title after being upset in last year’s semifinals.
“That’s what I love about this team,” Stubenrauch said. “When one guy struggles, I have other guys that step up. And it’s been like that.”
Donegal won its first two matches of the tournament by 2-0 scores, downing Section One runner-up
The members of the Donegal bowling team celebrate after winning the Lancaster-Lebanon League team championship on Tuesday at Cain’s Lanes.
DENNIS BICKSLER | FOR LNP/LANASTERONLINE
Cedar Crest 950-911, 980892, and defending champion Elizabethtown 1,029-1,000, 960-914.
While the Indians moved into the final in relatively quick and easy fashion, it was hardly that way for Section Two runner-up Warwick.
The Warriors, who tied Etown at 79-12 before losing the section title in a roll-off, lost the first game of both opening matches and included a game in each decided by less than 10 pins. The Warriors topped Section Three champion Columbia 883-934, 1,004-973, 896889, and Section One winner Hempfield 1,020-1,151, 975974, 1,087-917.
“They battled,” Warwick coach Neal Vital said. “It’s a long, hard day. Having to go three matches and the first two went the distance, it’s hard. But they hung in there.”
The Warriors finished their semifinal match nearly two hours after Donegal’s was over and just past the anticipated starting time of 2:30 p.m. for the final. After a break, the final began about 4:15.
“I saw the better team bowl better that last game,” Vital said of the final. “They were the better team all day. … We’ll work on stuff as always; maybe we catch them in the next couple weeks (at the Eastern Regional or state tournament).”
Warwick was two pins from being eliminated in the semifinals.
Leading much of the way, the Warriors were down 814-798 going into the 10th frame of the second game against Black Knights and 944-925 as the anchors stepped to the line.
But Nolan Good struck out while Hempfield’s Adam Shank had a strike, seven and spare for the one-pin win for Warwick.
Donegal got contributions from others in the starting five in the first two matches.
Against Cedar Crest, Nolan Dombroski had a 227, Dalton Sauder a 225 and both of Mike Berg’s games were over 200 (202, 215).
Against Elizabethtown, Sauder had a 257, finishing with seven straight strikes, and a 236, Dombroski had a 211 and Gehman a 215.
Dombroski rolled 210 and 212 in the final while Rowan Bacci had a pair of 203s.
Other scores in the quarterfinals were Hempfield over Northern Lebanon 1,064-901, 1,018-974, and Etown over Lampeter-Strasburg 1,031-982, 999-933.
Hempfield’s Luke Shank had the high game of the day, a 279 against Warwick, while Cedar Crest’s Paxton Thomas had a 258.
Donegal’s Nick Gehman reacts after rolling a strike in the second game of the Indians’ win over Warwick in the final of Lancaster-Lebanon League team championships Tuesday at Cain’s Lanes.
DENNIS BICKSLER | FOR LNP/LANCASTERONLINE
Copyright (c)2026 LNP Media Group. An Always Lancaster Company,, Edition 2/11/2026