Mundelein 8, Libertyville 3

When Libertyville senior Danny Lejeune scored on a sweet skip shot in the third quarter Thursday, the visiting Wildcats were within 1 goal at 4-3.

From there, the Mundelein boys water polo team was simply dominant.

The Mustangs scored 3 goals in the final three minutes of the third quarter on their way to an 8-3 victory in a North Suburban Conference match.

"We're not the type of team that will blow (people) away," said Mundelein coach Rahul Sethna. "But we know we're pretty sure we can wear teams down if we play defense."

Sure enough, Libertyville could not match Mundelein's energy in the final minutes of the third quarter.

"We (started) to get beat up and down the pool," said Wildcats coach Jeff Arce.

A good example of this came when Mundelein's Pat Falconer went for a steal around the middle of the pool.

"He was holding the ball up and I thought I could get it without committing a foul," Falconer said. "I was able to steal the ball."

After his steal, the only person preventing Falconer from scoring was goalkeeper Jimmy Palac.

"I saw the goalie come out," Falconer said. "He likes to charge a lot and I was able to throw it around him."

Although he didn't stop that shot, Palac played another outstanding game for the Wildcats. He finished with 12 saves.

"A lot of credit goes to Jimmy," Arce said. "Without him, it could have gotten out of hand."

Mundelein goalkeeper Kevin Coughlin (16 saves) and his defense limited Reed McCann to 1 goal.

"We thought we had some things that would work," Arce said. "We were able to set inside, but Coughlin to his credit shaded Reed perfectly on those shots and took away all those short corners."

Mundelein (16-6, 3-0) also benefited from an enthusiastic home crowd.

"It's always hard when you come here," Arce said. "I was trying to coach (my) players and they couldn't hear what I was saying."

Libertyville was coming off a huge 7-6 victory against Stevenson on Tuesday, the first time the Wildcats had topped the Patriots.

"We knew Libertyville would be up for this after beating Stevenson," Sethna said. "We had to be ready for them."

Falconer, Ricky Lukacs and Mike McClure each scored 2 goals for Mundelein.