Lyons knocks out rival Rice

Lyons and Brother Rice are used to their meetings in the boys water polo playoffs being a slugfest, But neither expected it to be so one-sided.

David Sekula, Kovas Zygas and sophomore Joe Shannon each scored four goals as the host Lions romped to a 15-5 victory Saturday over the Crusaders.

It was the third time in four years Lyons has topped Brother Rice in the sectional finals and avenged a 10-5 defeat to the Crusaders last season.

“It’s huge,” Shannon said. “We’ve always had a big rivalry with Brother Rice. Last year we lost to them in the sectional final, but this year we got our redemption.”

The win sets up a showdown with seven-time defending state champion Fenwick (33-0) in the state quarterfinals.

Lyons lost 8-6 to the Friars two weeks ago at Stevenson in the same pool where the state finals will be held. But that setback, one of two times any team has come within two goals of Fenwick, has done nothing to the Lions’ belief they can be the team to end the Friars’ reign.

“We know we can play with Fenwick. We’ve already done that once this year,” Zygas said. “We don’t see anything that can stop us from winning that game and going on to win the entire thing.”

Sekula had two assists and scored in the second period to spark a 7-2 run for the Lions that spanned the second and third periods.

“Positioning is a major part of this game. If you get in the right position, good things are going to happen and (Sekula) gets himself in those positions every time down,” Brother Rice coach Bill Mulcrone said. “He’s got great game sense.”

Ryan Schafer, Josh Hirt and Michael Brown each added a goal and Andrew Brown had 13 saves for Lyons (29-2).

Kyle Pikula and Mike Mulcrone both had two goals and goalie Mike Pufunt made four saves for Brother Rice (22-7), which has met the Lions in the sectional finals the past five seasons.

“We had our off days and our on days this season,” Pufunt said. “Some days we played like one of the better teams in the state and other times it was like we were in the bottom 25. We just couldn’t get our act together.”

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