Upper Arlington repeats state title sweep in boys, girls water polo

CINCINNATI — It just so happened that the Upper Arlington boys and girls water polo teams used nearly identical formulas to sweep the state championships for the second consecutive year.

The girls started the day Oct. 30 at Cincinnati Princeton by routing the Cincinnati Mavericks 11-1, and the boys followed suit with a 15-6 win over Toledo St. Francis.

While the girls built separation with a five-goal third quarter, the boys blew open a 1-0 first-quarter lead with six goals in the second and five in the third.

They celebrated together, with girls players pouring out of the stands to congratulate their boys counterparts before the latter jumped into the pool — coaches, players and championship trophy alike.

“I can’t speak for the players, but we felt like we had to get this done. We didn’t talk about that pressure with the guys … but at the end of the day, we knew we were too good to lose,” boys co-coach Dave McGraw said. “This is a special group. We finished our chances. This was a good win, a great day.”

UA’s boys capped a 33-3 season, in which they were undefeated in-state, by winning their second title in a row and ninth overall. Clark Pabst’s five goals and three from Andrew Rucker led the way, and goalie Jorge Oquendo’s 10 saves backed a strong defensive effort that forced St. Francis to send most of its shots high and wide.

UA scored four times in a 1-minute, 51-second span of the second, with two of those goals coming from Rucker, to take a 6-0 lead.

The final was a rematch not only of the 2021 championship, which UA won 11-10, but also of the North Region final Oct. 22 at UA. The Bears won that game 13-6.

“We stuck to everything we said we were going to do,” Pabst said. “We played physical, we played fast, we played together. It all came together in the end.”

Charlie Arquette and Alan Flansburg each scored twice for St. Francis, which finished 22-5.

In the girls game, Naomi Maurer’s three goals and two each from Emmy Campbell and Kiersten Schantz powered UA to its fourth title in a row, eighth in 10 years and 20th overall. Ella Dean had 13 saves.

The Bears might have had an even larger lead early had four shots not clanged off the crossbar in the first.

“I’ve told the girls all season that they have a green light at all teams to make a wise decision,” said first-year UA coach Ashley Neri, who won championships as a Bears player in 2006 and 2008. “I never allow them to not take a shot. The more shots they take, the more likely it is they’ll score.”

The Bears, who finished 32-2, maintained the shutout until halfway through the third quarter and allowed only one goal for the third time this season. UA went 3-0 against the Mavericks, winning those games by a combined score of 32-8, after beating them 9-5 in last year’s final.

“We just focused on keeping our hips up and keeping safe,” the Bears’ Ceci Croci said. “In a game like this, we figured (officials) were going to call just about anything. We had to play safe and play smart. They had a lot of strong sets and good players. What we did worked.”

St. Charles’ boys finished third, defeating Princeton 11-8 in the third-place game.

On the girls side, Thomas Worthington lost the third-place game 11-9 to Cincinnati Sycamore. Worthington Kilbourne defeated Mason 11-6 to finish fifth.

dpurpura@thisweeknews.com

@ThisWeekDave

This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Upper Arlington repeats state title sweep in water polo