Davidson, Mundelein 'D' hold off Loyola
Easy? No way.
But Mundelein got the job done.
Getting back to the Final Four of the IHSA boys state water polo meet for the first time in four years, the Mustangs survived a furious Loyola rally to earn a 14-12 victory Thursday night at Stevenson.
The Mustangs built a 10-5 lead early in the third quarter, only to see the Ramblers storm back with 7 goals in the final five minutes of the period to cut the gap to 13-12 entering the fourth quarter.
Thanks to some great Mundelein defense, that was the Ramblers' last surge.
The Mustangs (27-7) shut out Loyola 1-0 in the final period to secure a semifinal berth against Naperville Central on Saturday at 10:15 a.m.
The Ramblers (22-12) fell behind 4-1 after one quarter as Mustangs junior Will Davidson scored the first of his 4 goals. After taking a long pass from senior teammate Pat Falconer, Davidson fired a long shot past goalkeeper Henry Hermes with 17 seconds left in the quarter.
Falconer scored his third goals when he bounced a shot past Hermes for a 7-4 lead with 39.5 seconds left in the second quarter. Then with just six seconds left before halftime, Davidson scored on an assist by junior teammate Nick Mandas and the Mustangs held an 8-4 lead.
"We just worked on shooting at the side of the net in the first half, but in the third quarter we loosened up our defense," Davidson said. "We stepped up our defense after their (third-quarter) run and we just needed to stop them."
It had looked like the Mustangs would run away and hide when senior Brandon Horsch's second quick goal early in the third quarter gave Mundelein a 10-5 lead with 5:19 left in the period.
But the Ramblers engineered their big push, outscoring the Mustangs 7-3 the remainder of the quarter. Connor Murphy scored on an assist by Steve Freedman with 1.7 seconds left in the period to make the score 13-12 entering the fourth quarter.
Nick Mandas' close-range goal with 5:39 to play gave the Mustangs some breathing room, and goalkeeper David Dickinson was flawless the rest of the way to preserve the victory.
The Mustangs' Sean Falconer added 2 goals.
"After the third quarter we tried to settle them down and we told them to just stop and play defense," said Mustangs coach Rahul Sethna, whose team placed fourth in 2005 and '06. "We are both similar how we play, and all week we told them it would come down to who got more stops at the end. We were lucky to make a few good ones."