Over the past three weeks, the St. Louis U. High water polo team defeated the next two teams on its schedule with a 12-9 victory over Parkway Central and a 13-7 win over De Smet. Though fans were not permitted at the Parkway Central game, spectators were allowed at the De Smet game, meaning that each player could have two supporters in the stands.

The game against Parkway Central on Wednesday, March 31 was hard fought. The scoring was back-and-forth, resulting in an all-square 6-6 scoreboard heading into the final minutes of the game. With one minute left, Parkway Central scored, and it seemed as if they had iced the match, but the Jr. Billikens seemed to transform. Under the extreme pressure of the situation, SLUH played in an unfazed manner, as they perfectly executed a restart play that resulted in  junior Zach Brugnara scoring with 32 seconds left to tie the game at 7 and send the teams to overtime. 

The squad carried its momentum into the two three-minute overtime periods and dominated the opposition. In total, SLUH scored a whopping five goals to Parkway Central’s two, a stark contrast to the back-and-forth nature of the previous four quarters.

Against De Smet on Wednesday, SLUH had a much easier go of it. Within the first 30 seconds, Brugnara had scored SLUH’s first goal of the game off of a 6-on-5 play, assisted by senior captain Carson Cornett. The second goal of the game was also scored in a 6-on-5 scenario when junior Cooper Scharff cashed in off of another dime from Cornett. The first quarter ended with SLUH in the lead 2-1, but the team knew that they had not played to the best of its abilities yet. 

“(The De Smet game) was our best game yet,” said head coach John Penilla.”But, there is still so much potential for us.”

The second quarter ended with SLUH up 4-2. Scharff scored off of a cross goal pass from sophomore Brandon Harris, and Brugnara pulled off a majestic layout to secure SLUH’s fourth goal. 

During the third quarter, SLUH kept the pedal to the metal and really found a rhythm in the water. The squad racked up four more goals while only allowing De Smet to score two. The score was 8-4. SLUH, while possessing a commanding lead, was nowhere near finished with the Spartans. The final barrage of SLUH goals were scored by Cornett (1), Brugnara (1), and junior Connor Buehring (2). The goals in the fourth quarter served as icing on the already well-frosted cake as SLUH continued to dominate the water. The game ended with a 13-7 Jr. Bill victory.

SLUH played Parkway West yesterday afternoon. Parkway West’s water polo team has historically been SLUH’s only major rival in Missouri, making the game a highly anticipated matchup of the state’s top two teams.

“Just like every game we play, (the Parkway West game) is an opportunity for us to play our best,” said Penilla. “It’s just another game … the only difference is we know the competition will be stiff.”