Barrington marshalls an MSL triumph

Early in Thursday's Mid-Suburban League boys water polo championship game, things weren't quite going the way host Barrington had hoped.

"Definitely closer than we wanted it to be," said Broncos senior Marshall Mathias.

Wheeling was making things tough on Barrington. Kyle Noel and Landon Lockwood scored in the first period, and junior standout Nate Reiff had a pair of goals at the end of it to bring the Wildcats to within 5-4.

The East Division champs were regularly drawing ejections through plays sent toward Jake Noel in the 2-meter set, and a pair of exclusions against senior Matt Gouskos left Barrington a bit vulnerable.

Theoretically, anyway.

In practice, some defensive adjustments involving Mathias combined with his own steady goal production proved to be too much for Wheeling as Barrington prevailed 17-11.

It goes in the books as Barrington's first MSL boys water polo title since 2003.

Senior captain Chase Lesniak and Mathias scored 5 goals apiece and Gouskos finished with 4, while Charlie Hoffmann added a pair and John Fischer produced the final score for Barrington (23-2).

"It feels great, and I'm really pleased for our kids," said Barrington coach Scott Krasinski. "The work that led to this started a long time ago."

Reiff finished with a game-best 7 goals, 3 of them on penalty shots. His knack for creating shooting space and then firing crisply and accurately made him a game-long consideration for Barrington.

"I'd put him up with the best players in our state," said Wheeling coach Rudy Means of Reiff. "I think he's right there with anybody."

Frustrating for Means was a third-quarter lull where a series of possessions went awry for his team. Wheeling (14-13) was within 11-7 to start the second half, but Barrington score the first 4 goals of the third period to take command.

"We've been a very up and down team," Means said. "We have days where we play really, really well - but we also tend to have some stretches where we just compound our mistakes. That happens against a good team like Barrington, and boom, you're looking at three, four goals against you.

"I'm not disappointed in our guys. I thought mostly, we played well."

A sequence involving Mathias near the end of the first half was especially impressive. He first stole the ball on the wing and generated an exclusion as a Wheeling defender tried to slow him up; Mathias eventually got the ball back as the Broncos ran their man-up offense and was able to walk it up and stuff it into a corner of the goal.

"He's been very effective in the 2-meter set for us," said Krasinski, "and I think the really helpful thing is how versatile he is. If we have a player in foul trouble, like today, Marshall allows us to adjust defensively pretty easily."

Barrington is the top seed in next week's Schaumburg sectional but expects a strong test from the field. Conant, the team Barrington edged by 2 goals a few weeks ago, has been playing very well lately and is the No. 2 seed.

"Now the focus is on the sectional," Mathias said. "We've got work to do, and it's going to be tough."

Having a player like Lesniak will surely help. He had some success defending against Reiff, and Krasinski seems reassured to have a senior like him in place as the season's most meaningful games approach.

"He's gone out of his way to take advantage of every water polo opportunity he can find," Krasinski. "For me as a coach, he's been an enormous help. He'll run our warm-up and get the team ready to play, he's always helping out by driving people if they need to get somewhere - and then, I always know he's going to do his job in the pool. He's everything you'd want in a captain."

• The MSL all-conference choices were announced before the title game. They are:

Barrington: Chase Lesniak (Sr.), Marshall Mathias (Sr.), Matt Gouskos (Sr.)

Buffalo Grove: Anthony Murat (Jr.) Conant: Connor Schmitz (Sr.), Jacob Lawson (Sr.), Mihir Patel (Jr.) Fremd: Alex Nicholas (Jr.), Dylan Assmann (Jr.) Hersey: Jake Hall (Sr.), Sergey Smirnov (Jr.) Palatine: Jacob Baran (Sr.), Ryan Schlaiss (Sr.) Propsect: Sam Gabriel (Sr.), George Schober (Sr.), Isaac Ginnodo (Jr.) Schaumburg: Tyler Gustafson (Sr.), James Birriel (Sr.); Wheeling: Nate Reiff (Jr.), Arthur Ogenozov (Sr.), Landon Lockwood (Sr.)