Davidson clutch for Mundelein

Mundelein had the will - and Will.

Will Davidson has scored 120 goals for Mundelein's boys water polo team this season, but he probably hasn't delivered a bigger one than the one he pumped in Saturday with 1.26 seconds left.

His third goal of the game lifted the top-seeded Mustangs past No. 3 Stevenson 12-11 in the championship match of the Vernon Hills sectional.

"I knew there were a couple of seconds left and I had to get the shot off," Davidson said. "It's probably the best goal I've made all year."

Mundelein (26-7) had 10 seconds left after a timeout to set up the winning play.

"We originally planned it for me to pop out, but it didn't go as we planned," Davidson said. "Frank (Lukacs) passed it over to me and I knew I had a few seconds left, so I turned around and shot it. I'm not normally a hole-setter. I'm an outside shooter."

Mundelein will next play Loyola Academy in the state quarterfinals Thursday at Stevenson.

"We still want to be in the top four (at state), so we'll curtail our celebration for now," Mundelein coach Rahul Sethna said.

Mundelein fell short in the sectional the last three years, as it watched Stevenson capture the title.

"We finally were able to do it," Sethna said. "The last few years we were the No. 1 seed and (Stevenson) upset us. Finally, we got past them."

Stevenson (13-20) had one last opportunity to tie, but Alex Rembialkowski had his attempt at a fourth goal denied by Mundelein goalie David Dickinson.

"At first, I thought it was the goalie who was going to shoot, but then I saw (Rembialkowski) shoot and I just blocked it," said Dickinson, who made 7 saves.

The Patriots had a chance to win it earlier, as they controlled the ball with 30 seconds remaining. But they unleashed a shot too quickly and missed with 10 seconds to go.

"We rushed a shot that was ill-advised," Stevenson coach Sean Wimer said. "We really didn't play well enough on the defensive end to win the game. Our offense kept us in it. We were clicking on all cylinders.

"Our goalie (Jon Nadel, 16 saves) bailed us out of every situation and played out of his mind. Our team made a lot of progress over the last few weeks."

Josh Hodges also scored 3 goals for Stevenson, while Owen Yang netted a pair. Hasan Khan, Eric Shtivelberg and Chris Hodges scored for the Patriots as well.

Besides Davidson, Lukacs and Pat Falconer each fired in 3 goals for Mundelein. Brandon Horsch added two and Jeff Anderson also scored.

"The whole game, we wanted to dictate the style of play," Sethna said. "We wanted to make it a faster pace. That was a big thing. We were just able to get a good shot at the end."