Stevenson solves Mundelein

By third quarter’s end, Stevenson’s gold T-shirt-clad fans were refreshing their girls water polo players below with a standing ovation and vigorously shaking gold and green pom-poms.

The Patriots remained calm in the water. They remained subdued until officially solving their archrival.

“They know about this mental block that we’ve had,” said Stevenson coach Jeff Wimer, standing among giddy Patriots on Vernon Hills’ deck afterward.

“And they just got over it.”

Second-seeded Stevenson avenged a pair of regular-season defeats and — more notably — a 15-2 loss in last year’s sectional final by beating top-seeded Mundelein 9-5 to capture the Vernon Hills sectional championship and earn a berth in this week’s Elite Eight state meet at Stevenson.

“We lost last year and we got embarrassed,” Wimer said. “They wanted so bad to come back this year and move on.

“When we came in today, we said, ‘Just remember last year.’ I said, ‘Girls, you’ve worked hard, and good things pay off.’ ”

Stevenson (25-8), which plays top-ranked Naperville Central at 7 p.m. Thursday, led 9-2 after three quarters.

“I was actually expecting more than that,” said Stevenson senior Cheyenne Montijo, whose second-quarter penalty shot snapped a 2-2 tie and gave her squad the lead for good.

The Patriots couldn’t have asked for more.

They had lost to Mundelein 5-4 in their home pool and 11-5 to the Mustangs at the Fenwick tournament.

“It’s a rivalry, and we have a high respect of them,” Mundelein coach Drew Schneider said. “I think they have a high respect of us. For most of my coaching career it’s always been Mundelein/Stevenson. The games flip-flop and they’re always intense, no matter what the score is. So we knew coming here that it was going to be a battle.”

Mundelein (23-7-1) struck first, as Sarah Honda drove a shot into Stevenson’s cage immediately after a foul. After Stevenson’s Karen Lowry fired a shot past Mustangs goalie Emily Tylka, Honda fed Amanda Boothe in-tight for a 2-1 Mundelein lead with 11 seconds left in the first quarter.

But Lowry’s second goal began a run of eight straight tallies by the Patriots. After Montijo’s first of 2 penalty-shot goals, Stevenson’s fans stood and chanted, “Pa-tri-ots!”, “Pa-tri-ots!”

Sam Petti powered home a perfect pass from Montijo for a 4-2 Stevenson edge with 1:49 left before halftime.

“Stevenson came out ready to play, and we just weren’t ready to match that,” Mundelein star Alexis Jones said. “Maybe (we were) a little overconfident.”

Stevenson erupted early in the third quarter, getting goals from Lowry, Montijo and Erin McCook.

“They came out and they were driving into the center,” Schneider said. “I think they kind of put us on our heels, and then they kept pushing and kept pushing, and kept scoring the ball. We tried making some adjustments, but they were ready for the adjustments, too.”

Montijo’s second penalty shot and Petti’s goal off a Shelby Kohalmy assist capped a 5-0 third quarter for the Patriots.

“Our defense was pretty stellar,” Wimer said. “After that first quarter, we really locked down.”

Lowry, who along with Montijo finished with 3 goals, helped limit the Indiana-bound Jones to 1 fourth-quarter goal. Jones had scored 13 times in Mundelein’s first two sectional games.

“She’s very quick, so it’s tiring guarding her,” Lowry said. “Our plan was to press, so that’s what we did. That’s what I did to her, and it worked.”

“She played really good,” Jones said of Lowry, “offensively and defensively.”

“Alexis,” Wimer added, “is an awesome player. She’s one of the best.”

Stevenson goalie Lisa Michalowski had an awesome game. She might have been the biggest reason why the powerful Mustangs had only two goals until getting fourth-quarter tallies from Jones, Amanda Boothe and Allie Boothe.

Michalowski stopped 16 shots.

“I’m so proud of her,” Montijo said. “She came a really long way. At the beginning of the season she couldn’t throw (the ball) halfway down the pool. Now she’s going to be a top-eight goalie in the state.”

Another reason why the Patriots prevailed? Wimer noted his team drew 6 penalties and converted four times, including twice in 6-on-5 situations.

“I think all the girls put in 100 percent of their effort,” Montijo said. “It was all based off an intensity. We came ready to play, and that’s what we did, and we won.”