Warriors shoot well from outside against Red Devils

NAPERVILLE -- Waubonsie Valley got comfortable with its long-distance shooting Wednesday in a 14-6 win over Hinsdale Central in the second of four quarterfinals at the Neuqua Valley Sectional.

The Warriors adjusted to the zone defense Hinsdale Central threw at them and scored all but one goal - Tyler Hunt's breakaway in the first quarter - from the outside.

Bryan Martina and Jim Zuponeck both scored three goals and Anthony Conti and Hunter scored twice for Waubonsie, which will face top-seeded Naperville Central (24-4) in the first of two semifinals Friday.

"We were trying to get them to force up and press us, but they never came out," Waubonsie coach Chad Ganden said. "They had their strategy and that's what they stuck with, so we had to adjust to that a little."

The fifth-seeded Red Devils (8-19) wanted fourth-seeded Waubonsie (13-17) to shoot from the outside. Hinsdale Central coach Blake Lucas said it was a better alternative to letting Waubonsie swim around his players as they did in their regular-season match.

"The kind of offense they do, they do the running continual moving," Lucas said. "The first time we played them, we got caught a lot chasing them."

The four higher seeds advanced to the semifinals. In other quarterfinals, Neuqua beat St. Charles North, and Naperville North beat Hinsdale South. The host Wildcats (18-7) will play North(25-6) in the second semifinal Friday.

As for seeing Central destroy St. Charles East 17-1, Ganden said there wasn't much to gain in the way of scouting the Redhawks. Waubonsie has played Central twice this season and lost both times.

"I expect a real just dogfight in our game on Friday," Ganden said. "Our guys love playing them and I know their guys love playing us."

While Hinsdale Central thought it might frustrate Waubonsie with its zone defense, the Warriors were ready for it. They worked the ball around the Red Devils shell and got good looks at the goal, scoring four times in the first quarter, five times in the third and four times in the final quarter.

"A lot of times in practice we've been like working on that," Martina said. "We'll have like all our good JV guys come up and they'll play like tough defense and do a lot of zone like they did today. So we just set up our offense around the ring and we start sending drives to the down corners."

Waubonsie goalie Alec McWhirter had nine saves, including a stop on a Red Devils power play in the fourth quarter. Boys Water Polo: Waubonsie Valley 14, Hinsdale Central 6