Boys Water Polo: Homewood-Flossmoor overcomes Lincoln-Way East
Updated: May 9, 2012 9:06PM
Homewood-Flossmoor’s Zack Peterson admitted the inexperienced Vikings may have been a bit intimidated by the sectional stage early in Wednesday’s game against Lincoln-Way East.
After a slow start, it mostly was Peterson doing the intimidating as H-F took control in the second quarter and held on for an 11-9 win in a Lincoln-Way Central Sectional quarterfinal.
“I think we were all kind of nervous,” Peterson said. “Once we spread out our offense, we were able to get the ball in to me more and our outside shooters got going.”
Peterson scored four goals, Kevin Kuchta had three and Jakobi McClellan made nine saves to lead the third-seeded Vikings (18-12), who will meet Bremen Co-op in Friday’s semifinals.
Al Newell (four goals) and Tom Vander Velde (three goals) paced sixth-seeded East (8-20).
Up 2-1 after the first quarter, H-F pulled away with the first three goals of the second, including two Henry Weeks scores from outside.
Vander Velde’s goal on a skip shot brought the Griffins to within 6-4 before Peterson came up with a steal and scored to give his team momentum and a three-goal halftime lead it would not relinquish.
“I saw one of their weaker ballhandlers had it, so I went for the steal,” Peterson said. The goal got my confidence up.”
Dominick Malinauskas made 12 saves for East.
In the night’s biggest upset, seventh-seeded Bremen stunned No. 2 seed Andrew 17-16 as Gabe Stein-Rojas scored on a rebound with five seconds left for the Silver Snakes (15-8).
“I knew I had to get the rebound and put it in the cage for us,” Stein-Rojas said. “This win means so much for us. It’s the first time Bremen’s ever won a playoff game.”
Quinn Johnson scored eight goals and Kris Arnold four to lead Bremen, which rallied from a 15-13 fourth-quarter deficit.
Kyle Heneghan had seven goals and James Fischer three for Andrew (17-10).
Bradley 13, Lincoln-Way North 11: Kyle Mohan scored four goals and Curtis Thrun three for North (19-12).
© 2013 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.
Comments Click here to view or make a comment