Boys water polo: Naperville North clips Conant

Talented sophomores tend to grow into even better upperclassmen, and that's why a young Naperville North boys water polo squad is excited about its long-term future.

But youngsters can also develop quite a bit in a month's time with varsity experience, and that's why the Huskies are also excited about the present. Naperville North, powered by four starting sophomores, knocked off Conant 12-7 Friday night in Naperville with a strong fourth quarter that started with the hosts clinging to a 7-6 lead.

Sophomore Riley Thompson scored two of his match-high four goals in the big fourth quarter as the Huskies closed the match on a high note and recorded their second win in as many nights.

"It was a little rough in the beginning. It was more of a physical game than we expected," said Thompson, who tallied once in a first half that ended with the score tied 5-5. "I feel like between the third and fourth quarter, where we were only ahead by one, we all came together and said, 'This is our game. We've had it from the beginning.' We sort of just came together and did what we were supposed to do. And as a team this is one of the first times we played hard the entire time. We played with a lot of intensity."

Fellow sophomores Jack Wallace and Jack Tarantino each had 3 goals for Naperville North (7-6-1), and sophomore Owen Jacobs picked up a few nice assists in the match.

"I feel like we wore them down," Thompson said. "So, we did all the dirty work in the first three quarters and then in the fourth quarter we just did what we had to do. A lot of us our sophomores, too. We're looking forward to the future."

The 6-4-1 Cougars, who also are a little short on senior experience, were hurt when key players Alexander Hirjoi and Jack Lydon fouled out in the match. Talented goalkeeper Harris Dibek did his part, however, making 12 saves to keep his team in the hunt.

"I'd love to play Naperville North every week," Conant coach Tim Daniels said. "I think our learning curve would be more accelerated. That's been our challenge, we've won all of our games that we were supposed to, but we haven't won a close game yet. That's one of the things I'm looking to see happen hopefully in the next week or two."

Hirjoi, one of the Cougars' top scorers and a team captain, struck twice in the first half, including a long-range shot that eluded Huskies goalkeeper Ben Lovick and closed the gap to 4-3 with just less than five minutes left in the first half.

"Honestly tonight we were slacking a bit," Hirjoi said. "Like coming off the bench and everything. The last couple nights we played easier teams, but I mean as the game went on we improved. We improved and we were talking to each other, communicating, everything was getting better."

Naperville North coach Martin Bell felt his team made some key adjustments on defense and that his talented youngsters continued to make strides on offense as well.

"We're a young team and we're inexperienced," Bell said. "But now we're starting to use some of the experience that we got early. We took our lumps and now we're doing something. We start four sophomores. One of the best things about sophomores is they become a junior."