Familiarity breeds success for Stevenson

With a 10-1 record in the early part of the season, it's scary to think that you're still just trying to get better with every game.

But that's the mantra when it comes to the Stevenson boys water polo team.

A lot of these competitors have been teammates since a very young age, and that experience was part of the reason the visiting Pats handled Vernon Hills 25-11 on Thursday evening.

"Most of the guys have played and played together for a long time, so that experience is a big part of why we've been successful," said ninth-year Pats coach Sean Wimer, whose team's highest finish in the state series during his tenure is a runner-up showing two years ago, followed by a fourth-place effort last year. "When they get to me, I just try and mold them into a team."

That formula has certainly paid nice dividends as Wimer and the boys have gotten off to a flying start and are definite contenders for that elusive first state championship.

"That would be great," the coach added. "These kids work their butts off. There are a lot of great teams out there, but our goal is yes, to win state. We're young but we're big, fast, and pretty solid."

One of the young guns coming up through the ranks is freshman attacker Collin Kapecki, who leads the team in scoring with close to 50 goals. Against the Cougars, Kapecki was a madman in the first period when he scored 6 of his game-high 7 goals as Stevenson raced to a 10-2 lead after the opening act.

"That's always our focus, to make a statement by starting strong," said Kapecki, who is very quick to downplay the stellar season he is having thus far. "The counter-attack is one of the keys for me scoring anyway, but this is about the team. I happen to have great teammates who help me by giving me great feeds."

Vernon Hills had trouble penetrating the bigger Patriots defenders and only managed 8 shots on goal in the first half, opposed to Stevenson's 18. With a 16-5 lead at halftime, the Pats were able to open their rotation a little bit with the game pretty much under control.

Sophomore utility player Andrew Shashin popped in all 4 of his goals during the second period to help keep the Cougars off balance.

Vernon Hills, which lost a ton of players (and starters) mostly to graduation, is a pretty scrappy bunch and made it into a game in the second half before all was said and done.

"The big key heading into the game was to try and disrupt what they were doing by having hard drives and kick-outs," said Cougar sixth-year head coach Adam Lueken, who played water polo for Stevenson during his high school days. Last year, Lueken and the troops were a very respectable .500 team but with numbers and experience hurting, they have only one victory with plenty of more games to go.

"Guys are stepping up and we're just trying to get better," he said. "We head into every game trying to limit the losses while capitalizing on offense."

The Cougars hung around in the second half and were outscored only 9-6. They got better penetration and were more physical on offense with pushing the ball up the pool.

Senior 2-meter defender Patrick Pranica scored 3 goals and senior driver Nikita Mikhaylov added 2 to lead the Vernon Hills offense.

"They (Vernon Hills) played a lot better in the second half," added Kapecki. "But our outlet passes from our goalie (Ben Vilensky) were great. We just have great chemistry and know where each other is at."

Stevenson hits the road tomorrow for a weekend invitational at DeSmet Jesuit High School near St. Louis, while Vernon Hills travels to Mundelein next Tuesday for a 6 p.m. contest.