Boys water polo: St. Charles co-op clinches tournament title; Hersey tops Mundelein for third place
St. Charles co-op pulled away from Glenbrook South during the fourth quarter to win the championship match of the St. Charles Tournament 11-6 on Saturday.
Leading 7-5 at the start of the fourth quarter, St. Charles scored four goals with two in the last 83 seconds to cement the win. Hersey rallied in the final quarter to take third place with a 10-8 win over Mundelein.
Bradley-Bourbonnais topped Vernon Hills 13-5 in the fifth-place contest.
Senior Cole Selig scored the first goal of the championship’s final period for St. Charles, a co-op team with players from both East and North high schools. He converted a penalty shot at the 5:43 mark. Two minutes later, Selig scored again.
With 1:43 left to play, Oliver Kujawinski scored a goal for Glenbrook South (8-2) to narrow St. Charles’ lead to 3.
Twenty seconds later, Teddy Williams found the back of the net to return St. Charles’ margin to four. With 37 seconds left, teammate Jayden He scored the final goal.
“I think all of my goals came from when I got fouled and then did a no-look shot,” Selig said. “So I don't think the goalie was paying enough attention, but I also think it's because our team communicated with each other.”
Selig scored six goals in the championship match. He finished the three-contest tournament with a total of 17 goals.
“I think we just were able to capitalize on a couple of opportunities, but also stayed committed on the defensive end the whole game, which is really what we wanted to see,” said St. Charles coach Chris Cloy. “So that was the best thing for us to see is just playing good defense for four quarters.”
Cloy lauded the play of his two goalkeepers, Axel Anderson and Justin Collins, who shared net-minding duties.
“I was very happy with our goalies. We actually had two backup goalies for the day. Axel and Justin, filling in as varsity goalies for the first time,” the St. Charles coach said. “They did an outstanding job. They really helped the defense be consistent throughout the day.”
St. Charles (5-5) advanced to the final by winning both of its pool play matches.
“We had a very, very good tournament. This last game was by far our best game of the season,” Cloy said. “It was good to see improvement, and kids making some adjustments to things that we've been talking about.”
A fourth-period tie breaking goal by Hersey’s Ben Kolecz turned out to be the game-winner as the Huskies edged Mundelein 10-8 in a back-and-forth third-place match.
Hersey jumped out to a 6-3 lead after the first seven minutes. Mundelein (4-8) rallied during the middle quarters to tie the contest and take an 8-7 lead with 1:24 left in the third period on a goal by Mike Koncobo. Eleven seconds later, Huskie Will Corley tied the match.
With 1:56 left to play, Sam Wojtowicz added an insurance goal for Hersey. Huskies goalie Max Pucilowski made six saves during the last period to preserve the win.
“Max is a sophomore and he’s an up-and-coming star,” said Huskies assistant coach Lizzie Hardt. “I will say one to watch.”
Getting a win for the third-place match motivated Hersey (2-9).
“The momentum of getting our second win of the season turned it around in the fourth period,” said Hardt, who was filling in for coach Jack Casey. “Coming into this game, we knew this was a more evenly match for us, and we were able to figure out their shifts in defense.”
Vernon Hills (1-7) coach Adam Lueker saw a silver lining in his team’s disappointing loss to Bradley-Bourbonnais (5-7-1).
“I pulled Hlib Postulin up from JV just yesterday,” the Cougars coach said. “He really hustled — he might have led us in steals. He's going to be a future amazing guy to watch out for.”