Boys water polo: Highland Park edges young Vernon Hills

Fast forward to the future.

The crystal ball suggests the Vernon Hills boys water polo team should have plenty of wins. The numbers continue to grow for the Cougars, who just need more experience. It's a process that includes gaining confidence, win, lose or draw.

"Our numbers have gone from 14 to 26 and enough to field a JV team," Cougars coach Adam Lueken. "The nice thing is we have only six upperclassmen in the program, so we'll get a lot of these guys back for a couple of years."

Vernon Hills fell to 1-8 and 0-4 in the Central Suburban League North Division with a 5-4 loss to visiting Highland Park on Thursday night, but many lessons were learned.

"Every day we come back trying to practice and learn what we can do better," said junior 2-meter Remington Boes, who had 2 goals against the Giants. "We never give up and have each other's backs. We just need to keep up the energy."

Highland Park (3-11, 1-3) jumped out to an early lead after a goal by Liam Plunkett with 5:32 left in the first. Vernon Hills answered when wing player Ruslan Khamdulaev smashed one past the Giants keeper for the equalizer.

Highland Park regained the lead with a goal by Joey Nanberg to go ahead 2-1 after the first seven minutes of play. The Giants made it a 2-goal advantage with Nanberg's second goal.

Back came Vernon Hills, as Boes' first tally made it 3-2 at halftime. Highland Park upped its lead to 4-2 with Plunkett's second goal at the 1:42 mark.

But like many of the lessons being learned, the Cougars showed they can come back from just about any deficit.

On a man-up situation with 6:28 left in regulation, Dennis Zaslavksy wrested one away from the Giants keeper for a goal to cut the Vernon Hills deficit to 4-3. Boes then tied the score with 4:38 left.

"That was one of the hardest-fought games we've had this season," said freshman Ben Ravenscraft, who is known for his speed and defense, especially on counter attacks. "Even though we lost, we can use this as a positive. We showed we can come back after being down."

With fans now sitting on the edge of their seats, Highland Park took the wind out of the Cougars' sails with what was the eventual decider as Julian Rodriguez rifled one in past Cougars keeper Drew Gehrett to make it 5-4 with 2:56 left. Gehrett stopped seven high-percentage shots on the night.

Vernon Hills had a chance at the end when driver Steven Hart fed Boes, but the shot was blocked as time expired.

"We're allowing too many goals, whether defensively or not getting back on the counter attack," Lueken said. "But every day these guys come ready to practice. They're like sponges and just want to soak up as much as they can improve on. We have a lot of new faces, but they're picking things up pretty fast."