Hillsdale boys' water polo earns big win over Woodside

Hillsdale certainly made a statement. The Knights scored the first five goals of the game and then held off a second-half charge from Woodside to secure a 9-6 win over the 2019 Bay Division champs.

“This was huge,” said Hillsdale attacker Lachlan North, who scored a match-high four goals. “We wanted to start off league well.”

It was the second time these teams had faced each other, with Woodside posting a 9-5 win over Hillsdale at the Aragon tournament two weekends ago.

In that one, the Wildcats built a 6-0 lead at halftime. This time, Hillsdale (1-0 PAL Bay, 5-6 overall) flipped the script — doing so without relying solely on Josiah Yeager to generate offense. Early in the season, Yeager was a one-man wrecking crew. Now, the Knights have some secondary offense on which to rely.

Yeager still got his, finishing with three goals and two assists, but the Knights had five players in the goal-scoring column on the stat sheet.

“We learned we can’t rely on one guy,” North said. “We have other firepower. Now we’re getting everyone involved.”

Despite the nine goals, it was the Knights’ defense that got their offense going. Woodside had only two shots get through the Hillsdale defense in the opening quarter. They didn’t even really need goalkeeper Justin McClure, who still managed five saves — which was one more save than assists, as he had a game-high four helpers. But with Ethan Haywood stationed in front of him, not many Wildcat shots even got to McClure as Haywood finished with eight field blocks.

“He has a gift for that,” North said. “He can block righties and lefties.”

Seven of those blocks came in the first two quarters and its no coincidence that’s when the Knights were at their best.

“Our defense breeds our offense,” said Hillsdale head coach Bryan Bent. “We played our defense to perfection.”

Hillsdale took a 2-0 lead less than two minutes into the match with Ryan Sprowls opening the scoring 24 seconds into the match. Yeager then rattled home a goal from the left post for a 2-0 lead. Riley Fewkes made it 3-0 on a backhand shot in front with under three minutes to play in the opening quarter, before North closed out the period with back-to-back goals to put Woodside in a 5-0 hole after seven minutes.

“We took a while to wake up,” said Woodside assistant coach Giorgio Fatica, who was serving as interim coach after regular head coach Bruno Antonino was forced to sit out a game after receiving a red card during a game over the weekend.

“Hopefully we can put this in the rearview mirror,” Fatica said.

Woodside (0-1, 2-5) finally got on the scoreboard at the 5:48 mark of the second period, with Webster Antonchuck firing home a shot in the set as the shot clock wound down.

But the Knights got the goal back with just over a minute before halftime. The play was started when Haywood blocked a shot. He got the ball to McClure, who sent a long pass up pool and found North, who put it away to put Hillsdale up 6-1 at halftime.

Woodside goalie Max Mueller then stood on his head for most of the second half. He stopped all seven of Hillsdale’s shots in the third quarter as the Wildcats got goals from Eric Spangner and Kieran Duffey as they cut the Hillsdale lead to 6-3 going into the fourth period.

Mueller continued his outstanding play, blocking Hillsdale’s first four shots of the final quarter. But the Knights continued their strong defensive play and neither team managed any goals for the first three minutes of the fourth.

When Hillsdale’s Matthew Love put a shot in the back of the net at the 4:05 mark, it seemed to deflate the Wildcats.

It was the first of three unanswered goals for Hillsdale, with Yeager and North rounding out the scoring for a 9-3 lead.

Woodside managed three goals over the final 2:28, with Miguel Estrada scoring twice, sandwiched around a Ben Lewis penalty-shot goal.

“Huge statement (win),” Bent said. “If our guys play like that for four quarters, we’re going to do some wonderful things.”