Schaumburg savors satisfying bookend victories
Schaumburg’s boys water polo team played in the first game and in the last game at its Saxon invite on Saturday.
The opener started at 8 a.m.
The finale started at 2 p.m.
The Saxons had lots of time to kill in between. They did most of their damage in a hospitality room set up for coaches and officials.
“We sat around, ate and watched TV,” said Schaumburg senior Marty Kwiatowski, who figured he downed at least four hotdogs between a 9-9 tie with St. Charles East and a 13-5 defeat of Mundelein.
The nonstop TV fare was ESPN.
“What else were we going to watch?” Kwiatowski added.
He and his teammates then put on quite a show against Mundelein after a slow start. Saxons LJ Peterson, Randy Carr and Matt McMullen each scored a goal in the final 1:33 of the first quarter, and Schaumburg’s defense allowed only 1 goal in the first half.
The player who actually got Schaumburg’s offense going was junior goalkeeper Marty Faleni, who delivered a pair of lengthy, accurate assists to swift field players. Saxons standout senior Randy Carr (5 goals, 6 steals) netted his first goal of the game after catching up to a Faleni throw. He then executed a slick spin-and-score sequence that put the hosts up 2-0 with 33 ticks left in the first quarter.
Carr later found an open Patrick Halpin, who found an open Peterson, who found an opening for another goal. LJP would finish with 3 goals.
Schaumburg led 7-1 at the half.
“Our passing is getting more fluid,” said Saxons coach Brian Ragano, whose crew (6-3-1) went 3-0-1 at the two-day invite and finished runner-up to Lindbergh, Mo. (4-0).
Junior Jason Rehor scored Mundelein’s goal in the first half and tallied another in third quarter. Senior Matt Marcotte also scored 2 goals for the Mustangs (2-11).
“Schaumburg’s defenders got the best of us and created a lot of turnovers,” said Mustangs coach Rahul Sethna. “That hurt.”
Mundelein was coming off a satisfying 9-2 defeat of Lafayette (Mo.) Saturday morning. Rehor struck for 4 goals after Sethna made his boys play in an entirely different defensive scheme.
“We dropped back instead of pressing,” Sethna said. “We wanted to keep our opponents in front of us.”
St. Charles East finished third with a 2-1-1 invite mark, followed by Wheeling (2-2) and York (2-2). East’s Shaun Seuschek poured in 4 goals in the 9-9 tie with Schaumburg and joined mates Stephen Mason and Mitch Phelps as 3-goal scorers in a 10-7 defeat of Wheeling. Wheeling’s Austin Idhe scored 4 goals in the loss and 4 in a 10-6 win over Libertyville Saturday morning.
York got 3 goals from Ziggy Matsas as the Dukes edged Lafayette 8-7.
Libertyville (6-6 overall, 1-3 in the invite) played without leading scorer Tommy Keefe (college visit) in 2 losses Saturday. Wildcats Adam King and Alex Wang netted 2 goals apiece against Wheeling, and Matt King had 2 goals in a 10-4 loss to Lindbergh.
Mundelein won one of four games at the invite and tied Libertyville for sixth place. Lafayette (0-4) finished eighth.
Schaumburg’s Kwiatowski and several of his teammates returned to the invite’s hospitality room after Saturday’s finale. The TV was still on. But the hotdogs were all gone.
Kwiatowski still managed to smile as he looked back at a full weekend of polo.
“We might not be the strongest team, but we’re a pretty smart team,” he said. “It’s so good having a guy like Randy (Carr) around; he’s awesome and he makes the game seem so simple.
“I liked how our bench players came through for us big-time. They sure played well, didn’t they? Our bench is like the Chicago Bulls’ bench.”