Boys water polo: York's experience wins out over Fremd

The boys water polo teams from York and Fremd took to the Vikings' pool Tuesday evening in search of a return to the win column after experiencing tough defeats in their respective previous outings.

The Dukes dropped the final of their weekend tournament to West Suburban Silver rival Lyons while Fremd fell at home to Naperville North in nonconference play.

Thanks to strong performances from its core of veterans, the visitors from Elmhurst would earn a happy bus trip back home with a 14-3 win to move their season mark to 10-3.

"Fremd is a good program and there's a reason we have them on the schedule," York coach Brian Drumm said. "I think (Fremd coach) Tim Daniel is one of the best coaches out there. I knew that they were going to be technical. I knew that they press (you) hard and when you play a team like that, no matter what the score is, it's going to benefit us as well."

Senior Matthew Czech got those benefits going for York less than half a minute into the game with the first of his five tallies that helped establish control of the contest that it kept throughout.

His second score with 1:38 left in the opening frame came after goals by sophomore Gavin Honken and juniors Nick Kamenica and Charlie McKenna gave the Dukes a 5-1 lead.

McKenna's second tally followed a Matt Skwiot goal giving the Dukes a 7-2 cushion at halftime.

Czech's other three goals in the third period dashed any hopes of a Viking comeback that included goals by Honken and Kamenica and put York in cruise control as they took a 12-2 lead into the fourth.

Czech spoke of his team's attempt to pick up where it had left off in their last contest where it felt they had gained positive momentum.

"There was a great intensity, we just wanted to keep that going and come out strong and learn our mistakes from the last game and just put it out there, put it in the net and keep that intensity up," he said.

On the defensive end senior goaltender Jack Schroeder (11 Saves) helped keep the Viking attack at bay which gave Drumm an opportunity to run different defensive sets.

"Jack is such an experienced goalie," Drumm said of the Occidental (CA) recruit who was an All-Stater last season. "He's a three-year starter, such a great leader in the cage, so vocal."

For Fremd (4-4) a pair of sophomores, Jaden Heinlein (2 goals) and Ansh Parikh (10 saves) shined the brightest.

"Our team is not experienced," Daniel said. "We have to gain that experience by playing teams like York and (other) teams not in our conference that (can) come in here and hold us accountable to perform at high levels. There are moments when we just did not play consistently enough, which is something that is happening where our program is at. We're still building, we're gaining experience and still learning to win."