Lincoln-Way E. surprises Redhawks

Naperville Central's boys water polo team knew that Lincoln-Way East's Zach VanSwol could score and the Redhawks' defense was set to stop him.

But VanSwol was able to dominate from the hole early and scored 6 goals, including a pair of killers in within 30 seconds in the final quarter, to lead the Griffins to a 10-9 upset victory of the host Redhawks on Thursday.

While his first four goals were scored from the hole, those final two were a little different. The first was on a putback of an offensive rebound from medium distance, and the second was from long range.

"We knew to look for VanSwol, but we didn't do it well enough," said Naperville Central coach Bill Salentine, as the Redhawks suffered their first loss of the season, making their record even at 1-1. We had a lot of turnovers throughout the game. It's early in the season and we still have to get some rust off. We have to work on fundamentals and ball control."

Salentine should know more about the Redhawks after they play three games in the next two days, facing Neuqua Valley today and then both Naperville North and Waubonsie Valley on Saturday.

VanSwol gave Naperville Central trouble right from the beginning, scoring the first 2 goals to give the Griffins (1-0) a 2-0 lead after 3:10.

The Redhawks countered by taking the lead with 3 goals in the final minutes, 2 by Ben Reasons and 1 by Bobby Rickert, all with a man advantage.

They opened up a 5-3 lead in period two with Reasons and Rickert again doing the honors with a goal apiece.

The Redhawks fell behind 6-5 halfway through the third quarter but then battled back into the lead as Rickert and Reasons, who had 5 on the night, each scored again.

But after Reasons scored to make it 8-6, the fourth quarter belonged to the Griffins defense.

After a Redhawks turnover Kyler VonSwol put it in from beyond 5 meters for Lincoln-Way East. That was followed by a Kevin Kubik steal in the Redhawks' end, which he converted.

And then the two goals by Zach VanSwol, one off brother Kyler's steal and the second, which proved to be the winner.

The Redhawks fought hard at the end but a couple of saves by goalkeeper Nate Puskaric, who had 14 on the night.

A late takeaway by Kubik and a blocked shot by Karl Zoellick, sealed the deal for the Griffins.

"We tried to work it into the hole at the beginning of the game," Zach VanSwol said. "And once they picked up on that, we started taking shots from the outside, worked it inside and then back out and tried get more movement. Nate, our goalie, is really good. If he can get a hand on it, he's got it."

On defense the Griffins were effective in dropping their wings back to guard the hole, forcing the Redhawks to shoot from the perimeter.

"Our main goal was to play without errors," said Lincoln-Way East coach Jamie Voliva. "And because our pool has only six lanes, we had to make sure to spread out and use the pool effectively."

Rickert scored 3 goals for the Redhawks, while Mark Giuliani added 1. Mark Menis was outstanding on defense with 4 steals. Goalkeeper Tyler Kelley had 11 saves.