Boys water polo: Fremd tops Wheeling for MSL title

Wheeling's second straight appearance in the Mid-Suburban League boys water polo championship game didn't go as the Wildcats had hoped.

Fremd had a whole lot do with that.

Senior all-conference choices Alex Nicholas, Robert De Pau and Dylan Assmann helped lead the West Division champs to a 15-8 victory at Buffalo Grove on Wednesday.

Nicholas finished with a game-high 7 goals, and De Pau and Assmann hooked up on a pair of key possessions late in the first quarter that ended up making a big difference in the game's flow.

And while one of Wheeling's all-conference selections, Nate Reiff, generated plenty of scoring chances, by game's end the school's career scoring leader hadn't found the net.

"First of all, Nate Reiff is a great player," said Fremd coach Brian Newby. "He missed on a few he normally makes, and that doesn't happen very often. No question, we got lucky with that, and it changed how the game went."

De Pau and Assmann gave Fremd a lift on consecutive possessions at the end of the first quarter. Assmann came up with a steal and fed De Pau for a goal, and moments later they traded roles with another fastbreak opportunity finished by Assmann to put Fremd (20-5) up 4-1 after the first quarter.

Meanwhile, key players for both teams were running into foul trouble. Nicholas was ejected for a second time early in the second quarter while defending Reiff.

Reiff was called for his third ejection with 3 seconds left in the third quarter and Fremd leading 10-6. Nicholas converted that final man-up opportunity before the quarter ended and the Vikings led comfortably through the fourth quarter.

"Nate and I know each other pretty well from competing over the years," said Nicholas. "I mean, we're friends. I thought it was good, even matchup out there."

While Reiff wasn't scoring, he was still effective in gaining advantages on his defenders. Jake Noel was the benificiary of chances generated by Reiff several times and also created a few on his own to lead the Wildcats in scoring with 5 goals. Jacob Gorenyuk, Kyle Noel and Jorge Figueroa also scored for Wheeling (19-10), and Nik Busniski kept the game from getting out of hand with a handful of terrific reaction saves.

"Five's a pretty good number," said Jake Noel, estimating it equals his best single-game scoring output. "We knew they'd be physical, but they were even better swimmers than I think we expected, and that made a difference."

Wheeling coach Rudy Means looked at the turn of events as a missed opportunity.

"It's disappointing from the standpoint that we felt like this was the kind of year that a team from the East might finally be able to win one, and it didn't happen," he said. "But look, Fremd is a very good team - they earned it here. And we just need to learn from it, and realize that we can do things differently next time."

De Pau finished with 5 goals on sharp perimeter shooting for Fremd, which is the No. 1 seed in the sectional they will host next week. Wheeling is No. 3 at the Buffalo Grove sectional.

The Vikes also got 3 assists from De Pau and 2 from Assmann, along with 6 goalie saves from Zak Keper.

"For us this year, everything's been geared toward the sectional," said Nicholas. "So now we can give that our full attention."

This year's all-MSL choices:

Barrington: Mitch Gavars (Jr.), John Fischer (Jr.)

Buffalo Grove: Anthony Murat (Sr.), Ryan Lawson (Sr.)

Conant: Mihir Patel (Sr.), Tyler Goehrke (Sr.)

Elk Grove: Adam Doruff (Sr.), David Dragne (Sr.)

Fremd: Alex Nicholas (Sr.), Robert De Pau (Sr.), Dylan Assmann (Sr.)

Hersey: Sergey Smirnov (Sr.)

Hoffman Estates: George Isaac (Sr.)

Palatine: Jacob Conrad (Sr.)

Prospect: Isaac Ginnodo (Sr.)

Rolling Meadows: Mike Dellorto (Sr.), Charlie Borfa (Sr.)

Schaumburg: Tyler Gustafson (Sr.)

Wheeling: Nate Reiff (Sr.), Jake Noel (Sr.), Kyle Noel (Sr.)