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lockportlegend.com Sports
the Lockport Legend | April 26, 2018 | 45
Girls Water Polo
Porters jump out to 5-1 lead over Warriors before falling 11-10
Brunetti has teamhigh
four goals for
LTHS in loss
Randy Whalen
Freelance Reporter
When the Lincoln-Way
West and Lockport Township
girls water polo teams
met on March 6 in the first
game of the season, both
teams looked to the rematch
six weeks later. That’s because
they wanted to use the
head-to-head matchup as a
measuring stick as to where
they were that much later in
the season.
While both teams have
seen improvement, it was
safe to say that West was
pretty ecstatic at how far it
has come in the time since
that first game.
The Warriors scored the
final four goals and stunned
Lockport 11-10 in a scintillating
SouthWest Suburban
Conference matchup on
April 17 in New Lenox.
Delaney Janosek notched
a game-high six goals, as the
Warriors (14-6, 6-3) not only
won their seventh game in a
row, but set a new school record
for victories in a season
with 14. That happened with
over two weeks left in the
regular season, as the team
broke its previous record
of 13 victories, which happened
in the 2012 and 2014
seasons.
On the flip side, Lockport
(7-6, 2-3) didn’t add to its
win total. Junior Francesca
Brunetti scored a team-high
four goals, but it wasn’t
enough, as the Porters instead
lost their third straight,
all in the SWSC.
“We’re going to see them
again this [past] Saturday,”
Lockport coach Rick De
Leon said of facing the Warriors
for a third time this season
on Saturday, April 21,
at the Hersey Tournament.
“That will be in a neutral
pool, and we will see how
we do there.”
In the opener, back in the
in the first week of March,
West scored 10 goals but
gave up 14. Down the stretch
last week, the Warriors’ defense
was very good, holding
Lockport scoreless for
the final 6:11 of the game.
Junior Renee Solis scored
the Porters’ final goal at the
Lockport Township’s Francesca Brunetti aims for a shot
while Lincoln-Way West’s Cailey Janosek is in pursuit April
17 during a matchup between the two teams in New Lenox.
James Sanchez/22nd Century Media
6:11 mark. Then, Janosek
went to work, scoring from
the right corner just seven
seconds later to make it 10-
8. Then, she got open for a
breakaway goal with 5:28 to
play. Two minutes later, and
Janosek fired in a goal from
near mid-pool on the left
side to tie it at 10-10.
“I got two halfcourt goals,
and I just had the confidence
to shoot,” Janosek said. “It
was a good game. We kept it
close in the third quarter. We
just kept it close, encouraged
each other, worked hard and
it got us somewhere.”
For the next two minutes,
each team had opportunities.
But then junior Eileen Quinn
got a shot past junior keeper
Kaya Naskinska (11 saves)
with 1:18 left in the game
to give the Warriors the 11-
10 lead, their first since 1-0.
Junior keeper Julia Mindy
(9 saves) made a couple of
saves, and senior Cailey
Janosek, who had a goal earlier
in the game, got a huge
steal for the Warriors with
36 seconds to play to help
clinch the win.
“One of our approaches
is to see the same team and
how we make adjustments,”
De Leon said of facing the
Warriors six weeks later. “In
the first half [last week], our
defense played lights out.
But you could see the intensity
pick up in the third
quarter.
“West played well. Our
defense is strong, and we’re
using more shooters. It was a
tough game, and they just hit
one more shot at the end. For
us, it’s just a matter of hitting
shots.”
In the opening quarter,
the Porters hit their shots.
Delaney Janosek scored 39
seconds into the game, but
Lockport responded with
five-straight goals, three by
Brunetti, to lead 5-1 after
one quarter. The Porters,
however, didn’t score in the
second quarter, and West answered
with a pair of tallies
from senior Maeve Bauer
and junior Emma Fleisleber
to trim the deficit to 5-3 at
halftime.
After the teams combined
for eight goals in the first
half, they combined for eight
in the third quarter, with each
team scoring four. Sophomore
Emily Plaszewski (3
goals) had two, and senior
Kayley Uy (2 goals) had one
for Lockport. Sophomore
Riley Kettelson scored one
for the Warriors.
“We had six wins in a row
earlier in the season, and
now we have seven,” Delaney
Janosek said after last
week’s Lockport win. “[A
key] is we’ve been hanging
out, doing a lot of team
bonding and just practicing
hard. It feels awesome, and
we just want to keep it going.”
The next day, April 18,
Lockport traveled to Aurora
and lost to Waubonsie Valley
13-7 in a possible preview
of a matchup in the Metea
Valley Sectional. Brunetti
and Uy each had two goals
to lead Lockport, while
Naskinska had 11 saves.
Lockport’s losing streak
hit five games on Thursday,
April 19, with a loss to visiting
Sandburg in a SWSC
matchup. Both the Porters
and West traveled to Arlington
Heights on Saturday,
April 21, for the Hersey
Huskie Invite.
Homer 33C bowling caps year of firsts with girls state title
Boys team finishes
fourth at competition
Submitted by Homer
Community Consolidated
School District 33C
It’s been a year of firsts for
the Homer 33C Bowling program
— the first year tryouts
were open to sixth-graders,
the first year Homer hosted a
bowling tournament and the
first year a Homer team won
the state championship.
“It’s been an incredible
year for the Mustangs,” Hadley
Middle School teacher
and bowling coach Andrew
Dole said. “Our students
worked hard all season long,
and their efforts paid off.”
Momentum started to
build in March, when Homer
hosted its first bowling tournament
at Lockport’s Strike
and Spare II on March 20.
Sixty-one bowlers from
10 different schools participated.
Both the Homer girls
team and the Homer boys
team came out on top, winning
their divisions.
They went on to compete
at the IESA Sectionals (the
first year IESA added sectional
qualifiers), and, finally,
the state tournament on
April 13 and 14 in Joliet.
Twenty-four boys and
girls teams participated at
state, bowling four games
the first day. Only the Top 10
teams advanced to the April
14 matchup, where they
bowled six more games.
The Homer girls team,
comprised of eighth-graders
Emma Punter and Demi
Kontos; seventh-grader
Cassie Kontos; and sixthgrader
Paige Matiasek, was
solid from the start, bowling
an incredible 735 the
first game of the tournament.
Led by Paige Matiasek’s 220
game, the team’s four-person
score of 735 was the highest
game shot by any girls team
the entire weekend.
By the end of Day 1, their
Please see Bowling, 43
The Homer girls bowling team (left to right) Cassie Contos,
Paige Matiasek, Emma Punter and Demi Contos smile April
14 at the state tournament in Joliet. The girls won the state
title by 149 pins. Photo submitted