Boys water polo: Naperville North eliminates Metea Valley from sectional
During the first quarter of Wednesday night's Metea Valley boys water polo sectional quarterfinal between Naperville North and the host Mustangs, there were a combined five shots that hit a goal post and another that hit the side of the net.
That resulted in a 1-1 tie after the first seven minutes. Then the offenses of both teams clicked and the goals came at a quicker pace. The fourth-seeded Huskies found a way to get some distance between them and the fifth-seeded Mustangs in this scoring battle. Naperville North prevailed 10-8.
Next for the Huskies is a 5 p.m. Friday sectional semifinal against top-seeded Naperville Central. The 28-1 Redhawks downed Waubonsie Valley 17-1 in the first quarterfinal match.
It will be the fourth time the two teams have met this season, with the Redhawks winning the first three. The number of times the squads have faced each other so far this season is of no concern to Naperville North coach Martin Bell.
"I want to face tough opponents in the playoffs. When you compete against better teams that's how you get better," he said. "(Against Naperville Central), we need to play as team and play within our system."
Stopping the Mustangs (18-11) was a four-quarter task for the Huskies (18-12). Riley Thompson led Naperville North with four goals and he tallied his second one, grabbing a rebound off a shot, with 47 seconds remaining to give his team an 8-6 advantage at the end of three quarters.
He made good on two more scorers to start the fourth and the Huskies had a 10-6 advantage with 4:07 remaining in the contest. However, Metea was not finished. Brian Edwards scored at the 3:08 mark and then Johnathan Duval made it 10-8 with 2:30 left in the match. Naperville North held on, but Metea did the best it could with the time remaining.
"I put a lot of faith in our team," said Mustangs coach Adam Zankowski. "Their perception of the game is different from mine. I tell them if they have an opportunity to take the shot to take it and have faith in their teammates and move the ball around. We just didn't do that enough."
Duval and Brady Erdman each led Metea with two goals.
Erdman scored the first goal of the match 1:14 in and Jack Wallace tied it for Naperville North with just 42 seconds remaining in the opening quarter.
"I think the key was that we countered down to 2 meters to keep it spread out. We had leads and they came back and pushed hard," Wallace said.
Wallace and Chase McClure each scored twice for the Huskies.
Naperville North led 4-3 on halftime thanks to two goals from McClure and one from Wallace.
Jack Tarantino and Owen Jacobs also notched goals for the Huskies. Tyler Flanders, Raphael Kosta, Jordan Brosius and Brian Edwards also scored for Metea.
Winning goalie Ben Lovick finished with 8 saves.
"(The Mustangs) faced adversity this season. We played a tougher schedule and still came out successful. There were a few losses at the front," Zankowski said.