WILDWOOD • The DeSmet water polo team made its first appearance at the Lafayette Invitational this weekend and the Spartans made the most of it.
DeSmet topped a solid eight-team field with five wins in three days, capped off with Saturday night's 14-8 victory over Parkway West in the championship game.
"They're a good young team, they played well and they are well-coached," Spartans coach Miguel Figueras said. "We're very fortunate to play the way we did and still win the game."
Seven different players scored for the Spartans (12-2), including four apiece from juniors Andrew Diemer and Keenan Berry.
"I felt like I was just running on adrenaline," Berry said. "We played three games today, but I didn't even feel it."
Parkway West (10-2), which had a 10-game winning streak snapped, was led by six goals from junior Steven Emde.
"We started out really well," Longhorns coach Charlie Cutelli said. "We were pumped and I think the boys were excited."
The Longhorns had a strong start to the game with a 3-1 lead after one quarter. DeSmet scored first with a goal by senior Aaron Adcock just 29 seconds into the game, but Emde answered with three straight goals to close out the quarter.
Parkway West senior goalie Joe Allen had a particularly strong first seven minutes in keeping the potent Spartan offense at bay.
"Joe started playing water polo his sophomore year," Cutelli said. "He was a former soccer goalie and I convinced him to come out. Last year, he wasn't even starting for JV. But he played in the summer, played in the winter and joined the swim team and I've been wowed by how much he's improved."
But in the second quarter, DeSmet then did what it needed to do when shooting into the deep-end goal - score and score often.
The Spartans scored eight times in the quarter, led by Berry, who had three of his four goals in the quarter.
"Everything was clicking," Berry said. "We had good passes and good scores and our counterattack was just awesome."
Diemer had two tallies in the second quarter, while Adcock, sophomore Will Diemer and freshman Zach Holtgrewe also scored for DeSmet, which led 9-5 at halftime.
Parkway West couldn't match DeSmet's feat when it had its turn to shoot at the deep end in the third quarter. In fact, the Longhorns couldn't score at all during those seven minutes and ended up getting outscored 3-0.
"We played three games and my bench is probably not as deep as theirs," Cutelli said. "I told my guys that a lot of times they were kind of sitting around watching. They had our number in that sense."
Berry's fourth goal of the game 42 seconds into the fourth quarter put the cap on an emphatic 8-0 DeSmet run that resulted in a 13-5 lead.
Parkway West scored three of the game's final four goals, but it wasn't enough as DeSmet took home the tournament title.
