Boys water polo: Preview for St. Charles

We’ve announced our early season Super 6 boys and girls water polo teams.

Now for a look at St. Charles:

ST. CHARLES

•Coach: Andrew Hoffman, third season

•Top players: Reed Bateman, Peter Hou, Connor Lofthouse, Liam Miller, Seth Pettis and Danny Richardson

•Key losses: Ryan Alfred, Adam Fellows and Aidan Miller

•Last season: 26-9

•2021 postseason: Def. Worthington Kilbourne 28-4; lost to Toledo St. Francis 12-11; def. Napoleon 10-8; def. Thomas Worthington 16-3; def. Cincinnati Princeton 16-8; lost to Upper Arlington 15-11; def. Cincinnati St. Xavier 16-14 in state consolation final

•Outlook: The Cardinals are looking to get back on top after having a string of three consecutive state championships snapped with last season's third-place finish. Two key performers are back from the consolation final, a 16-14 win over Cincinnati St. Xavier. Senior goalie Reed Bateman had 10 saves in the victory, and senior utility player Connor Lofthouse scored three goals.

Lofthouse is the top scorer back after having 53 goals, a team-leading 97 assists and 38 steals. Senior center Seth Pettis (28 goals, 23 assists, 29 steals) and senior utility player Danny Richardson (26 goals, 46 assists, 68 steals) are returning starters along with senior center-defender Peter Hou (11 goals, 11 assists, 6 steals). Sophomore utility player Liam Miller, (30 goals, 21 assists, 36 steals) also is back.

•Quotable: “We definitely have a great group of returners that learned a lot last season. We were seeing defenses that we weren’t necessarily comfortable with. This time, we want them to know what defenses they will be coming up against and how they should attack them.” — coach Andrew Hoffman

shennen@thisweeknews.com

@ThisWeekHennen

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Boys water polo: Preview for St. Charles