Deuel Chalks up Second Seminole Win
Seminole Pro Tour / Springhill, FL
by Skip Maloney
Deuel dominated the field at the Seminole Florida Pro Tour at Capone's Billiards in Spring Hill, FL.
Corey Deuel proved that he didn’t need to employ his signature soft break to win a tournament. On the weekend of September 12-14, with a rule in place on the Seminole Pro Tour that prohibited the technique, Deuel went undefeated to take first place in the tour stop. The $9,000-added event drew 53 entrants to Capone’s Billiards in Springhill, FL.
This was Deuel’s second victory on this year’s Seminole Pro Tour. He chalked up his first win on the tour in April, using the soft break to great effect in the finals against Larry Nevel, whose frustration at the technique caused him to concede the match’s final two games.
This time out, it was something of a rocky road for Deuel, who opened his tournament bid with a narrow double-hill victory over Taz Maravane and then shut out Mike Davis. Over the next three matches, opponents Johnny Mattowa, Hunter Lombardo, and Tony Ruberto battled to within two racks before Deuel sent them west. He caught something of a second wind in the hot seat match, defeating Donnie Mills 8-1.
View the Seminole Florida Pro Tour double elimination brackets
Earlier Sunday, Charlie Williams, who’d been sent to the one-loss side by Tommy Kennedy in the third round, was hard at work advancing toward an eventual match-up against Deuel in the finals. He eliminated Lombardo, Dan LaVoie, and Justin Hallbefore facing Ruberto in the quarterfinals, defeating him 8-5.
In the semifinal match, it looked briefly as though Mills was going to head back to face Deuel, as he took a 6-3 lead. But the sixth rack proved to be his last, as Williams settled in to win the final five games and a chance to prevent Deuel’s second tour victory.
To defeat Deuel in the potential race-to-11 format, Williams would have had to reach 9 wins first, which would trigger a match extension. It never got that far. Deuel jumped out to a 5-1 lead that he never relinquished, and though the two battled back and forth in a few of the match’s middle games, with Williams winning three more, it was Deuel that prevailed 9-4 to take the first-place prize.
| Results: | |
| 1st | Corey Deuel |
| 2nd | Charlie Williams |
| 3rd | Donnie Mills |
| 4th | Tony Ruberto |
| 5-6th | Jonathan Pinegar |
| Justin Hall | |
| 7-8th | Dave Broxson |
| Dan Lavoie | |
| 9-12th | Neil Fujiwara |
| Hunter Lombardo | |
| Tommy Kennedy | |
| Dave Walters | |
| 13-16th | George McLanahan |
| Julio Aquino | |
| Dan Sheldon | |
| Jerry Calderon | |
| 17-24th | Steve Moore |
| Brian Davalos | |
| Chip Klein | |
| Jimmy Mattowa | |
| Dave Ross | |
| Butch Croft | |
| James Roberts | |
| George Vlacich |