Sports
Girls Water Polo: Color Marian's Win over L-Way West Green
Marian Catholic 8, Lincoln-Way West 4. Spartan goalie Devin Green turns back everything the Warriors throw at her in a solid performance in nets.
When you come out sluggish it helps to have a great goalie to keep you in the game. At the same time, when you fall behind a great goalie, your chances of making a comeback are slim.
That is what happened to Marian Catholic, which came out of the gate slow, and Lincoln-Way West, which fell to a hot goalie who didn't allow much to get past her.
The result was an 8-4 Spartan girls water polo win over the Warriors in New Lenox.
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“We weren’t playing our game at the beginning,” Marian Catholic coach Sean Scanlon said. “I called timeout way earlier than I ever would.”
Scanlon's move to call the timeout paid off as the Spartans scored a goal late in the first quarter, four in the second and two in the third to go up 7-0 before the Warriors scored their first goal.
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“When we played strong, that is when we built a big lead,” Scanlon said.
Spartan goalie Devin Green looked early like she wasn’t going to let much by her, and she did not until well after the game was out of reach.
“I have a great defense in front of me,” Green said. “It is not really put on me, but when it does come down to it, I take care of what I need to take care of and I trust my girls to score on offense.”
Amy Martello, Paige Wieser and Carlee Wieser scored two goals each for the Spartans. Sophie Sesto and Erin Grupp had the other two goals.
The Warriors got on the board with 5:21 left in the third quarter. They added three more goals to make the final score look tighter than the game actually was for much of time.
Sara Carse led the Warriors with two goals. Michelle Fairbairn and Allison Rocha each had a goal.
“Passing was better, movement was better and the things we have been personally working on are improving,” Lincoln-Way West coach Kristen Anderson said.
Scanlon was upset his team let up toward the end of the game.
“This close to sectionals, we can’t go in shut down mode,” he said. “We can’t let them go on a run like that.”
Though a challenge, Anderson liked how her team attacked the opposing Spartan goalie.
“We were going for hard shots and taking as many as possible,” Anderson said. “The more you take, the more chances of getting some in the back of the cage.”
