Sports
Boys Water Polo: Redhawks Romp Their Way To State
Naperville Central 19, Naperville North 5. The Redhawks look for their first-ever state title after winning the Neuqua Valley Sectional Saturday.
The sport may be water polo, but after boys team advanced to next week’s state tournament at Stevenson Saturday, Jay Howenstine looked more like a middle linebacker.
The Redhawks had just put the finishing touches on a 19-5 win over rival to win the Sectional. Central coach Bill Salentine was already prepared to jump into the pool with his team, his shoes and socks neatly stashed by the bench.
But Howenstine gave him no choice, wrapping Salentine in a running bear hug for a raucous trip into the pool to celebrate Central’s fourth straight trip to the state tournament.
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“He’s about the only guy that can pick me up and tackle me,” Salentine said. “He did play football a couple of years. That was a good tackle.”
The celebration became a formality after the Redhawks (29-4) awakened from a slow start and hit the throttle against North (17-12-3). Central beat North by a combined 18 goals in their first two meetings this season.
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Alex Hogenboom’s goal tied the game at 2-2 for North but Central got out in transition and went on a 9-1 run to put the game away.
“They came out a lot stronger this time,” Central senior Kyle Rickert said of North. “We came back pretty tough. We’re a good swimming team, so we had a lot of endurance. It was just getting into the flow, getting the nerves out. But we get on top of things and we’ll come at you.”
The Redhawks’ spectacular counter attack was the story of the game, as it has been all season.
“We have a strong counter attack,” Salentine said. “The guys all swim for Mike Adams (on the swim team in the winter), so they all come into the season in great shape. We’re fast, we’re quick to make steals and counter attack. That’s kind of the way that it was the past couple of days. We’re happy that it continued today.”
With goalie Pat Stablein triggering the counter attack, the Redhawks are an equal opportunity offender. Scoring chances tend to get spread around in the wide-open attack, and Saturday was no different. Rickert led the way with five goals in the win. Kristian Altuve added four goals; Dennis Herron and Pat May each scored three times and Nate Weeks put in a pair.
“Their half court is good, but it’s their transition and counter-attack that make them good,” North coach John Blumthal said. “They got about 13 of their goals that way. They finish every time. They’re so well rehearsed in practice that it’s executed every time.”
Central entered the playoffs ranked No. 3 in the state by illpolo.com. But the bracket is not kind when play begins at Stevenson Friday. The Redhawks open against seventh-ranked Sandburg Friday at 8:15 p.m. in the quarterfinals. The other quarterfinal on that side of the bracket is a match-up worthy of a state title match, with top-ranked Fenwick facing No. 2 seed Lyons. That means the state’s top three teams are on the same side of the bracket.
Central is looking for its elusive first-ever championship. The Redhawks finished second in 2005, 2008 and 2010.
“It’s always tough when you get to the state tournament,” Salentine said. “It’s going to be tough, but we need to win three more games. We have to win the first one. We talk about that all the time. Control the things that we can control. We can’t control how other teams are playing or whom they’re playing. We can only control our team, our actions and go from there.”
