St. Charles East offense off to a great start
The boys water polo season is just days old, but team trends can appear early, and St. Charles East's 21-4 victory over host Metea Valley on Thursday was no exception.
The Saints (1-1) have scored 31 goals in their first two games after opening the season Monday with an 11-10 loss to Maine South. Coach Tim O'Grady said it's simply a case of the offense showing its capabilities.
"My offense is just great. The six guys in the water are amazing. They know each other and can play with each other and they are six really smart guys," he said.
St. Charles East opened its scoring three minutes into the game on a goal by Dustin Differding. Just 18 seconds later, Andrew Roberge made it 2-0. Both players finished with 6 goals each.
Both scores came from about 10 yards out. The Saints then pushed closer to the net and began complete domination of the game. They led 7-0 after the first quarter and outshot the Mustangs 13-3. St. Charles East outshot Metea 34-13 for the game.
The Mustangs (0-1) got some offense going late in the second quarter when Michael Litinsev put his team on the scoreboard for the first time with 2:40 left in the period. He scored two more times in the contest.
The Saints led 10-1 after 14 minutes and outscored Metea 11-3 the rest of the contest. Winning goalie Ethan Sellers made 9 saves. Metea goalie Riley Byrne finished with 13.
What also made O'Grady happy is the St. Charles East defense showed improvement from Monday's contest. He said it was strong then, but the occasional lapse helped Maine South.
"There were some situations that happened on Monday. That barely happened today," he said.
Metea coach Andrew Peterman said his team is in need of experience and expects the Mustangs to look different at the end of the season than they did Thursday.
"This team has just two seniors on the roster. We have pulled up younger players that normally wouldn't be on varsity," he said. "However, they didn't show what they have shown in practice and that's frustrating. Our offense failed because of passing. We set up well. We were moving decisively. It came down to bad passing."
The Mustangs are right back in the water Friday for the first day of the Naperville Area Kick-off Tournament at Naperville North. The Saints stay on the road for a contest Saturday at Argo.