Neuqua Valley too quick for St. Charles North

Great swimmers do not always translate into great water polo results, but they sure did Wednesday night for Neuqua Valley.

The Wildcats' boys squad hosted St. Charles North in Naperville and after leading just 2-1 after one quarter, Neuqua used some superior swimming to knock off the North Stars 20-4.

St. Charles North came to town with a 6-3 mark and the hosts sat at 3-8 after a tough schedule to open the year and a lopsided loss to Fenwick the previous night.

But Neuqua scored numerous times after quick counters and always seemed to find an open player to get a good look at the St. Charles net.

"Our guys are pretty fast, and we relied on their speed tonight," Neuqua coach Mike Bathan said. "Kevin Patterson, one of the smaller guys on the field, had about 8 steals and that allowed us some really good counters."

A.J. Quebbman scored 2 of his 3 goals in the Wildcats' big second quarter, which enabled the hosts to take 10-3 lead at the half after 8 scores in seven minutes. Quebbman was quick to point out his team's success during the past swimming season, as well as note that he hopes his team's tough competition allows Neuqua to see more success as the water polo season progresses.

"We got second in the state in swimming and we have a lot of quick swimmers," he said. "It just all clicked tonight. We got the weak-side passes and it led to a lot of easy goals."

Quebbman opened the scoring off an assist from Jason Koberstine midway through the first quarter, but the North Stars' Justin Jacobson tied things up less than a minute later. It was 2-1 Neuqua after one quarter after Mike Rooney took a long outlet pass and lobbed a shot over St. Charles goalie Eric Stoffregen for the first of his match-high 4 goals on the night.

But when Rooney tallied three more times in the second and Patterson and Quebbman each tallied twice, the hosts were on their way to a one-sided win. Wildcats goalie Kevin Cordes made 9 saves and also scored a goal himself.

"Our kids played hard and they played well. Unfortunately we have some room to grow," North Stars coach Chris Cloy said. "Neuqua's a good team and they showed it with how they played tonight. They anticipate really well, and that comes with playing a number of years."

Cloy, who got single goals from Jacobson, Kyle Passini, Joey Chokran and Michael Nield on Wednesday, is hoping his relatively inexperienced program can improve from playing against teams like Neuqua and the competition it will face this weekend at Naperville North's tourney.

"You have to play the good teams in order to learn and in order to become one of the good teams yourself," Cloy said.