Water polo: Hersey girls, Palatine boys take sectional titles at Hoffman Estates

Hersey’s girls water polo team secured its fifth sectional championship in six years with a 10-7 victory over Fremd on Saturday in Hoffman Estates.

The win was extra sweet for the Huskies (22-9) as they were able to avenge last season’s sectional final loss to the Vikings.

“We were not happy with the end result last year, so these girls definitely wanted to be back in this game,” said Hersey coach Megan Brownley, reflecting on the 8-7 season-ending loss last spring.

“It was definitely a bitter feeling in my mouth,” said her senior captain, Melissa Loch, who scored a pair of goals Saturday.

“We were up that whole game last year, and we lost in the last 2 minutes,” Loch added. “We came into this game being like, the score doesn't matter, it’s always zero to zero.”

In reality, it did not stay scoreless for long as the Huskies came out with a rapid-fire first quarter attack, scoring seven goals in just over five minutes of game time while building a 7-2 advantage.

“We just kept on trying to make sure that we could stay ahead and that we were focusing on our defense,” said Loch. “Winning just felt amazing, especially because it’s my senior year. I'm just so excited to be around these girls — winning with them was just amazing.”

Sam Hasche got the action started for Hersey, finding the back of the net with 5:30 to play in the first quarter. She also scored a pair of goals, along with Loch.

“I think nobody even knew she was going to shoot that ball. And [then] she scores another one,” said Brownley.

Minnie Santeler also added a pair for Hersey, while Audrey Neill had a hat trick with three goals. Emily Stein added a single goal.

“They can't double team all six of them,” added Brownley. “I like that the other girls stepped up and shot when they were supposed to and made really good shots.”

With a large advantage, and memories of last year’s loss driving them, the Huskies were able to put this one away despite another late surge from Fremd.

Catarina Gaido scored five goals for the Vikings (23-6-1), including two in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t enough to repeat as sectional champions. Sarah Fletcher and Addison Newby also scored goals for Fremd.

“It just meant really great growth for our team,” said Neill, after her three-goal afternoon. “It’s basically the whole same team as last year minus a few players. So we really just came together.”

The Huskies will face defending state champion Stevenson in supersectional action on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. back in Hoffman Estates.

“We're going to look over the film of the time we played them last weekend,” said Loch, who is teammates with several of the Patriots players during club play. “It's gonna be tough, but I think if we work hard, it'll be a good game.”

Boys sectional final: Palatine (26-7) also claimed a 10-7 victory in the boys sectional final at Hoffman Estates on Saturday, its coming over Barrington in a repeat of last season’s sectional semifinal.

The Pirates defeated the Broncos (24-8) in both matches, this year riding the hot hand of Owen Kain, who scored three goals, including a laser from long distance with only six seconds remaining in the first half that tied the game at 4-4.

He was a catalyst for the offense all day, as the Palatine offense never stayed silent for long.

“For us, it was our kick plays where we'd start a pick against one of the defenders and then try and get open,” explained Kain. “They were doing a lot of zone dropping on us. So, it was just our ability to kind of pick a guy off and kind of isolate ourselves on one side so that we could get rid of the extra people dropping to try and fill them off.”

The Palatine scheming was able to get Kain’s brother Ethan involved as well.

The younger Kain added two more with goals, in the second and third quarters, while teammate Max Casaccio saved both of his goals for the fourth quarter.

“It's really exciting. I think we're all just beyond excited,” said Casaccio. “We lost a lot of talent last year with multiple all-state players, and people doubted us.”

“We just came up and we showed how close knit we were, and we just showed up,” he added.

While the Pirates were able to maintain a lead for most of the contest, they trailed initially, with Barrington claiming the first two goals of the day.

“I feel like after that moment, we kind of had to talk together. We got our mindset right,” said Ethan Kain.

“We know we're better than them. And it was just who wanted to step up,” he added. “Our whole team did a lot of stepping up and they wanted to win.”

“They threw us off our game early,” said Palatine coach Joe Grzybek. “Then I think we were able to do that to them late.”

After Owen Kain tied it heading into the intermission, it was a back-and-forth third quarter and Hersey led 6-5 heading into the fourth.

Casaccio found the net to make it 7-5 to open the final eight minutes and the lead never slipped below two goals for the rest of the game.

The Pirates also will face Stevenson on Tuesday in Hoffman Estates. They will open the evening at 5:15 p.m.