THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | FRIDAY, MAY 9, 2008
Late Knight Rally Just Not Enough
By DWIGHT ESAU
Journal Sports
It was a magnificent rally, and it almost worked.
Prospect's boys water polo team came oh, so close Wednesday to winning its first IHSA sectional match ever, but it was not to be. New Trier avenged an earlier defeat to the Knights and eliminated them from the post-season, 8-7.
But not before the Knights scared the bejabbers out of the large Trevian crowd at the Glenbrook North pool Wednesday night with a spine-tingling fourth period rally.
Down 8-5 with less than two minutes to play, Knight Tim O'Grady, who had been very quiet the whole game and hadn't scored a goal, came alive. He worked free twice in a 20-second span to take long passes and ram two point-blank shots past the Trevian goalie to make it an 8-7 game and galvanize the Prospect fans into a frenzy. In the final 40 seconds, Prospect stopped two New Trier shots and swarmed around the New Trier goal. Two fierce Knight shots by Matt Reiner and O'Grady were blocked by the Trevian goalie, and time ran out on the Knight season.
They finished their second independent campaign at 15-8 and a Mid Suburban-East conference championship. Leading scorer Sean Hanson scored three times for the Knights, O'Grady twice, and Charlie Mau and Joe Stelnicki once each. Goalie Brian Forrest had an outstanding game, keeping his team in it with more than half-a-dozen dramatic second-half saves.
In the other sectional quarterfinal at Glenbrook North, top-seeded Glenbrook South lived up to its reputation (a 26-1 record and one of the state's best offenses) with an easy 16-6 win over number-nine St. Viator, which earlier eliminated Hersey, 5-3.
The Lions stayed close to the Titans for only one period, which ended in a 3-2 Titan lead. Glenbrook then scored 6 times in the second period to take a 9-3 half-time lead.
The Titans coasted home, playing substitutes for most of the fourth quarter after limiting the Lions to only two goals in the middle two periods.
The Titans spread the wealth around, with nine players scoring. Chris Daleth led the way with 4 goals, all in the first half. Ben Hengels tallied 3, Ryan Landgren and Tommy Nimrod 2 each, and Alex Lilak, Zach Demertzis, Jessie Garibaldi, Nick Kerndt, and Andrew Grieve 1 each.
Glenbrook South meets New Trier at 4:30 p.m. Friday at Glenbrook North in one sectional semifinal.
In other sectional matches involving Journal-area teams Wednesday - Loyola eliminated Wheeling, 18-7, and Conant, top-seeded in the Hoffman Estates sectional, advanced with a 14-9 win over Palatine behind Chris Emery's 4 goals.