Mike Zuglan, Rodney Morris, Suad Kantarevic and Snooker owner Steve Goulding
The stars were out at the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour’s 2020 New England Pool & Billiard Hall of Fame 9-Ball Open on March 7th – 8th, and it was “The Rocket” Rodney Morris that was the brightest star of them all.
A field of eighty two players were in attendance at Snookers in Providence, RI to witness the induction of David Wright, Chris Leal, Mike Rinella, Jay Stevens, Cleiton Rocha, Pete Genovese & Ivan Lee into the New England Pool & Billiards Hall of Fame. If the list of inductees wasn’t strong enough, the field of players in the weekend even included such notables as BCA Hall of Famers Johnny Archer, Mika Immonen, Rodney Morris and Pat Fleming, as well as Jeremy Sossei, Frankie Hernandez, Ron Casanzio and Joey Dupuis.
An early Hall of Fame battle on Saturday between Immonen and Archer saw Archer sent to the left side of the board 9-5. Immonen followed that up with a 9-1 shellacking of Hernandez in his next match. He would then defeat Dupuis to remain undefeated on Saturday. He was joined on the winners side at the end of the day by Morris, Sossei and local hero Suad Kantarevic. Kantarevic is a regular at Snookers, who was having the tournament of his life on this weekend. His undefeated streak on Saturday had already guaranteed him his best career Joss Tour finish.
Sunday morning kicked off with Immonen beating Kantarevic 9-7, while Morris sent Sossei to the one loss side by a slightly more comfortable 9-5 scoreline. Morris and Immonen are certainly no strangers to each other, facing off in many tournaments throughout their Hall of Fame careers. What might have been a tough match to pick a favorite in, turned out to be a lopsided win as Morris got into his groove and raced to a 9-1 win.
On the one loss side, Dupuis ended Sossei’s day in 5th place in a 7-2 match. Meanwhile, Kantarevic was proving his day one results weren’t a fluke. He had three straight 7-5 wins, eliminating Steve Tavernier, Dupuis and then Immonen in the semi-final match.
Kantarevic wasn’t through though, as he came from the left side of the board and grounded Morris for a 9-2 win in the first set of the finals. Morris quickly regrouped and scored an equally dominating 7-1 win over Katarevic in the second set for the tournament win.
Sunday’s second chance tournament saw Rocha celebrate his Hall of Fame induction by coming out of the one loss side to double dip Nick Coppola in the finals 3-0 and 3-0 to take first place.
The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour is back in action on March 21st – 22nd for the Kevin Ketz 9-Ball Open at Trick Shot Billiards in Clifton Park, NY.
