Another Tournament Championship for Dexter Men’s Water Polo

From Sandra Bialowicz
 
Last weekend, the 8-1 Dreadnaughts traveled down to Columbus, Ohio, making their first ever appearance in the Ohio Cup Tournament. They would be joined by 13 Ohio teams along with a couple club teams from Illinois.
 
To begin Saturday round-robin play, Dexter had trouble putting away the Princeton Vikings in a sloppy start to the weekend. However, the Dreads ultimately came away with an 8-6 win.
 
Heading indoors, they would regain their confidence with a 15-7 shootout over Oakwood. Junior Leo Varitek found himself with 5 goals.
 
The tallest task of the day came in the form of a solid Upper Arlington team. The strong Dexter defense was the highlight in this one, forcing over 20 turnovers and keeping UA out of scoring position. Luke Sayler recorded five steals while Junior Goaltender Tony Golin racked up 14 saves as the Dreads cruised to a 7-3 win, finishing off the day 3-0 and winning their pool. Upper Arlington would go on to take 5th place overall.
 
In Sunday tournament play, Dexter went up against the Blue region champion, Chicago Park District in a semi-final matchup. The dreads came out firing with goals by Sam and Mitchell Sterlitz to take a 6-1 halftime lead. Again, the defense prevailed resulting in an 11-4 victory. The Sterlitz brothers combined for 5 goals while Leo Varitek and Ben Duncan earned 2 each.
 
Dexter would then face, for the third and final time this year, the St Charles Cardinals in the Championship. The previous two meetings ending in one goal dreadnaught wins, one of which took a 3 goal, 4th quarter comeback. This game would prove no different and remained tied after every quarter. The game began with a power player goal from Sam Sterlitz before St Charles quickly answered with two goals of their own. Leo Varitek would tie things up 2-2 to end the first quarter. The second period was a defensive struggle with no goals. The game would go back and forth from there and head into the fourth quarter tied at five. A flurry of goals later and Dexter found themselves down 8-6 with two minutes remaining. They needed some offense in a hurry and they would get it from Jack Boldgett to Mitchell Sterlitz to pull within one. On the next possession, Mitchell would score again to tie which sent things to sudden death overtime. Three minutes of suspense later and Mitchell would do it again off a foul shot to complete the comeback with a final score of 9-8.
 
Tony Golin and Mitchell Sterlitz were named first team all-tournament.
 
 

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