Fenwick puts away Oak Park

Getting into a physical battle with the state’s top boys water polo team might not have been the best strategy for Oak Park-River Forest during the Fenwick Sectional final Saturday.

After falling behind the undefeated and top-ranked Friars early because of some overly aggressive play, the Huskies actually played even with Fenwick in the second quarter. But the Friars came out in the second half and dominated Oak Park to advance to the state tournament with a 24-6 victory, setting up a quarterfinals meeting with No. 2 Lyons at 7 p.m. Friday at Stevenson.

Fenwick sophomore Matt Farmer led the onslaught with eight goals for the Friars, including three straight in the first 1 minute, 28 seconds of the third period after Oak Park (16-14) had drawn to within 11-6 at halftime with an impressive run.

“We just had to pick up the intensity and get our heads back into the game,” Farmer said of the Oak Park comeback bid. “They had some of the tools to beat us, so we had to get back to playing like we knew we could. We had to come out ready to play because we know they are a good team.”

Fenwick (33-0) jumped out to a 6-0 lead, helped in part by two goals on man-up situations early in the first quarter. The rough play continued and resulted in Fenwick senior Dom Gallo being ejected from the game for allegedly punching Oak Park’s Clayton Witt in the face.

The incident sparked the Huskies, who outscored the Friars 5-3 over the next four minutes to pull within 9-5 with 1:52 to go until the intermission. Goals by Fenwick’s Dan Kelly and Viken Heuning (2 goals) increased the advantage to six before Troy Williams slapped a rebound past Friars goalie Dan Newell (8 saves) to make it 11-6.

But the physical play and the Oak Park scoring spree only served to intensify the Fenwick attack.

Farmer and teammate Connor Brown (6 goals) proceeded to throw shots past sophomore Oak Park goal keeper Sean Obrecht from every angle, scoring seven of the Friars’ eight third-period goals to turn a five-point lead into a 19-6 cushion after three periods. Fenwick outscored Oak Park 13-0 in the second half.

“My teammates really set me up with a lot of opportunities,” Farmer said. “Everybody played as a team, especially that third and fourth quarter. Everybody played phenomenal team ball, looking for the extra pass, playing exceptional defense.

“Once they made a run at us in the second quarter, coach just told us at the half to calm down, to keep our composure and play with the intensity we had in the first quarter. Now we can look forward to playing some great teams at state, and hopefully we can win it again.”

Fenwick has been crowned state champions the past seven seasons and has won 11 of the last 12 years.

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.