No stopping Phelps, St. Charles E.
Mitch Phelps is very familiar with St. Charles North’s water polo program, to the point that the junior plays in the summer on a team coached by North Stars coach Chris Cloy that has a number of St. Charles North athletes on the roster.
But during high school water polo season, Phelps is a St. Charles East athlete, and he was one of the keys to the Saints 10-7 victory on Thursday at St. Charles North. Phelps scored seven of his team’s goals in the victory.
“When I get to get to go head to head with them, it really puts some meaning into the game,” Phelps said.
Phelps plays in the “hole,” that area just in front of the net and players in that position usually have a variety of flicks and backhanded shots as well as powered front-on shots in their arsenals. Phelps is no exception, displaying an array of ways to score.
“I swim in the winter to condition, but water polo — I play summer, fall, spring,” Phelps said.
The ability to find other players was also important in a match that was tied 6-6 entering the fourth quarter and in which neither team had a lead of more than a single goal until the Saints pulled away with 4 unanswered goals early in the fourth quarter.
“They crashed down on me and I had to pass it out,” Phelps said. “When it came down, I had to put it in the goal.”
After a 5-1 start, the Saints have struggled to find consistency. With Thursday’s win, St. Charles East is 7-4-1. Importantly, the Saints have two wins this season against the North Stars, who will be paired in the same IHSA Sectional.
“Seedings come out in April, and if they’d beaten us today, they’d probably have been seeded ahead of us because they beat us closer to the sectional,” St. Charles East coach Sean Markovic said. “But because we’ve beaten them twice, we should be seeded higher and hopefully we’ll get a nice, high seed.”
St. Charles North (3-9) got a strong contribution with Joey Chokran’s four goals. And the North Stars achieved the 6-6 tie with 10 seconds left in the third quarter on a Justin Simmonds goal. But the Saints pulled away from there.
“Tie game going into the fourth quarter, that’s what we want,” St. Charles North coach Chris Cloy said. “We want an opportunity to win. And we were in position to do that. They just played a little better than us in the fourth quarter.”
The North Stars did not score in the fourth quarter until John Pretet netted with 2 seconds left in the match. Through the match and especially in the fourth quarter, the Saints defense was sound.
“They were pressing pretty much everywhere, making it hard for our guys to make passes and work our offense,” Cloy said. “But it’s not anything that we weren’t ready for. We’ve just got to get a little better at it.”
Chokran moved through a number of positions in the pool to find openings either to score or to set up his teammates.
“(Chokran’s) always does everything I ask,” Cloy said. “He’s a great kid. He works hard and every game he’s put in a 100 percent effort.”