Boys water polo: Mundelein picks its spots, sinks Warren

It doesn't matter who scores the goal on that pick play the Mundelein boys water polo team ran several times on Tuesday evening against visiting Warren. And it sure produced welcome results for the entire offense.

"Usually when we're late in the shot clock, we set a pick on the hole set and wing, and it usually frees someone up in the middle," said Mundelein coach Russ Gates. "We're still learning and realizing we can play defense and compete in close games, and even win a few of them. We just need to start building off of our defense and gain more confidence on the offensive side and find the back of the net more."

While the Mustangs have prided themselves on defense so far this season, it was the offense that got rolling early and often during a 19-1 victory over the Blue Devils in North Suburban Conference action on Tuesday evening in Mundelein.

"Our counter-attack was there at the beginning," added Gates, whose team improved to 1-1 in the NSC and 6-9 overall. "We're starting to put things together. We just need that light switch to go off more often for our offense."

No problem with that on Tuesday. Junior attacker Jake Garcia got the scoring started with 2 first-quarter goals, including the second on a feed from Hunter Magee that helped produce a 6-0 lead after the opening 7 minutes of action.

Single goals were also scored in the first by Eubin Kim, Ryan Zentz, and Mundelein's leading scorer, freshman attacker Danny Oleinik.

"We're getting more consistent and it was important to get off to a fast start tonight," said Oleinik, who ended up with 4 goals on the evening. "Our sense of urgency is there and we're trying to play how we practice."

Garcia led the Mustangs on Tuesday with 5 goals, while Magee and Zentz finished with 2 apiece as 10 players scored. Garcia also collected 4 steals along with senior Jack Frane. Magee also dished out 5 assists and Stanley stopped 11 Devil shots on the evening.

Meanwhile, the pieces are falling into place for Warren, only in its second year as a program.

"The kids know how to play and are like sponges when it comes to learning," said Devils second-year coach Brian Esposito, whose guys fell to 2-12 overall and 0-2 in the NSC. "We were happy with how we played tonight, especially against a good team like Mundelein."

With a man-up situation early in the second, Warren put together a beautiful drive that featured several passes before Austin Cortes finished the possession by blasting one past Stanley for the Devils' lone goal just 28 seconds into the frame.

"That was huge for us. He (Cortes) also did an excellent job on defense holding Mundelein at bay, and did a nice along with (Jeremy Gunter) in executing the offense," noted Esposito. "Overall, these guys' game sense is incredible for only playing a short time."

With starting keeper Riley Nebel out ill, Jomil Duka (3 saves) and Peter Mikolitis (2 saves) each played a half in goal.