Boys Water Polo: Lyons dominates Curie to set up showdown

Updated: May 11, 2012 7:37PM

Nobody can accuse Lyons’ boys water polo team of looking ahead.

Knowing that a win in Friday’s York Sectional semifinals against Curie would ensure a showdown between them and Fenwick, the top two teams in the state, for the sectional title Saturday, the Lions came out with a steely resolve.

Lyons dominated a high-powered Curie squad, 11-1, to set up Saturday’s noon title game against Fenwick.

Fenwick topped Lyons early in the year, and the Lions returned the favor by snapping the Friars’ 82-game winning streak later in the season.

“If we looked forward to the Fenwick game, we could get beat by Curie, so we just really took the attitude that we had to get work done,” Lyons goalie Chris Sekula said. “I was impressed. We did a good job.”

Lyons (30-2) was all business from the outset. It took a 7-1 lead at the half thanks to three goals from Josh Hirt and two from Kovas Zygas.

Sekula and the defense helped that offensive surge stand up the rest of the game. Curie’s big three of Ramiro Almaraz, Eduardo Chavez and Marcos Hernandez were shut down all night. The lone goal for the Condors (21-4) came from Manny Martinez.

“We tried to stay consistent on the defensive end,” Lyons coach Doug Eichstaedt said. “Our goalie played great again. Chris had 18 saves. When we can play our zone defense and have Chris in goal, we know he can do a great job.”

Curie was also playing without head coach Omar Vazquez. He enlisted in the Army and was summoned to Georgia to begin his service last week, leaving assistant coach Nick Velasquez in charge.

“They’re very physical,” Velasquez said of Lyons. “They’re a lot bigger than us. That kind of hurt us. Hopefully the young guys got some experience.”

Now the Lions can look forward to the game that people have been waiting for all season, a game that will have a state championship feel despite being a sectional title game.

“It’s going to be a great game,” Sekula said. “I don’t even know how to describe it. I’m just so excited to play it. This is the biggest game of our year. It’s two teams that really want to play each other, that have ill feelings toward each other. It’s going to be a physical game, really good water polo.”

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