Last modified: Thursday, July 17, 2008 2:29 AM EDT

Congdon eliminated from Mass Amateur

MARION - The first day of match play at the 100th Massachusetts Amateur Championship has come to an end and eight golfers have earned a spot in Thursday's quarterfinals. This year's event, which features two days of stroke play and three days of match play, is being held at The Kittansett Club in Marion.

One quarterfinal match will feature two outstanding mid-amateur players in Doug Clapp (Walpole/Old Sandwich GC) and Kevin Quinn (Needham/Charles River CC). Clapp was a 4 & 2 victor over Scott Congdon (Foxboro/Foxborough CC).

Stroke play medalist John Hadges broke his string of match play losses today with two victories. Over the course of his two-decade golf career, Hadges has earned medalist honors at this event five times - 1981, 1987, 1988, 2005, 2008 - yet he had never been able to proceed past the Round of 32 in Match Play. That all changed today when he first knocked off Ken Gys by a score of 2 & 1 during the morning round and then pulled out a challenging 20-holes victory against Brian Higgins.

Two-time champion of this event, Frank Vana, Jr. will face Hadges on this morning after defeating Jack Kearney in 19 holes.

The day's second match will feature reigning Massachusetts Mid-Amateur Champion Philip Smith (Tyngsboro/Vesper CC) and Daniel Falcucci (Northboro/Cyprian Keyes GC), who is making his match play debut this year.

Two-time Massachusetts Junior Champion Antonio Grillo will make his quarterfinal debut after knocking off 2005 Massachusetts Public Links Champion Phil Miceli, 4 & 3.

Grillo will face Matt Parziale, who defeated 2006 Champion Ben Spitz, 3