Conant takes key early test at Palatine
It didn't take long for the Mid-Suburban West girls water polo season to get interesting.
The two teams who battled it out for a state tourney appearance in a riveting sectional final last year were at it again in a high-profile divisional opener Monday as Conant visited Palatine.
While there's certainly a whole lot of season left, both teams knew this matchup might have a lot to do with who emerges as the eventual conference champ.
Give the early edge to Conant, which claimed an 8-7 victory in a game that had a little bit of everything, including:
• A flukey early goal as Palatine senior standout Caroline Wojtas was left unattended to give the Pirates the easiest of 1-0 leads.
• A phantom goal in Conant's favor on a shot that clearly went through the side netting and never cleared the goal face.
• Lockdown defensive efforts by both teams down the stretch, in a loud atmosphere usually reserved for the postseason.
• Stellar goalie play both ways, from Conant's Maddy Demaret and Palatine's Tess O'Brien.
Conant's improved defensive effort in the second half made the difference, as the Cougars held Palatine to 1 goal in that span after the Pirates led 6-4 at the half.
Carmen Rosas and Emily Weingart - both holdovers from Conant's unbeaten MSL West championship team of last year - came up with 3 goals apiece.
"Palatine is a great team," said Rosas, "and lately they've pretty much been our strongest rival. So we knew it would be the kind of game it turned out to be.
"The main thing for us was that we found a way to get stronger as the game went on. I'm really proud of the way we pulled together, especially defensively, late in the game."
Conant forced Palatine into a tough situation as the Pirates' Caitlin McHugh was tagged with a third ejection in the middle of the second period, thus excluding her from the rest of the game. Rosas drew 4 ejections and Weingart 2.
Wojtas finished with 5 goals, and McHugh and Mathilde Mogensen each had 1. But it got ever more difficult for the Pirates to generate scoring chances as the game progressed.
"We're such a young team right now," said Wojtas, the team's leading returning scorer from last season. "We hope that games like today's help us learn and improve - same thing for the tournaments we're in, like over the weekend at Stevenson, playing teams like Lyons."
Wojtas scored with 4:18 left to tie it at 7-7 after taking a nice feed from Kristin Anderson.
After a series of nice point-blank saves from O'Brien (13 saves), Conant got the go-ahead goal from Weingart with 46 seconds left and was able to deny Palatine on a final possession before running out the clock.
Demaret - known to her teammates by an array of colorful nicknames, including Iron Curtain and Brick Wall - finished with 11 saves, 4 steals and assisted on a pair of goals.
"We played well against a very well-coached, capable team," said Palatine coach Mitch Tucker. "As always, we try to stay focused on getting to where we want to be at the end of the season, and when you play a schedule like ours, you're going to take some lumps sometimes."
The victory kept Conant unbeaten at 6-0 overall, and 1-0 in the MSL West, while Palatine drops to 3-3 and 1-1.
Prospect 7, Hersey 6 (OT): The visiting Knights outscored the host Huskies 2-1 in the overtime periods to pull out a victory in a Mid-Suburban East matchup.
Gracie Dix led the scoring for Prospect (3-2, 1-0) with 3 goals and Niki Neumann had 2 while keeper Lauren Broz turned back 20 shots.
Katie Lutz (3 goals) and Caleigh O'Neil (2) led the way for Hersey (1-2, 0-1), which got 9 saves from Emily Van Grinsven.
Schaumburg 9, Barrington 6: Senior Britney Vasquez led the way for the host Saxons, scoring a game-best 5 goals as Schaumburg (2-2, 1-0) got off to a winning start in the MSL West.
Mia Latimer had 3 goals to lead the Fillies (1-3, 0-1).