Big Weekend Lifts De Smet Water Polo to 12-2

While last Saturday’s water polo match between and was billed as a rematch of last year’s state championship game, it just quite didn’t live up to the hype as the Spartans defeated the Vikings, 10-1.

The match was part of the eight-team Lafayette Invitational and De Smet went on to beat MICDS and Parkway West to capture first place in the tourney. The Spartans won five games over a three-day period, and ended Parkway West’s 10-game winning streak with a 14-8 victory Saturday night in the championship game.

De Smet (12-2) head coach Miguel Figueras was glad to see his defense step up big against the Vikings after giving up an average of 9.5 goals a game through the first 10 games of the 2011 season.

“We’ve really been buying into the team defense and we’re still trying to teach the kids to recognize each other and recognize the situations that they’re in,” Figueras said. “It’s been a fun learning experience for us as a group and to see some of the younger players really come into their own and step up and not rely on the guys that were here last year.”

De Smet goalkeeper Matt Brethorst was outstanding in the net as he held the Vikings to their lowest scoring total of the season.

“It’s not just a credit to the hard work that Matt has put in but to the defense and recognizing when we need to go into a zone and when we need to go into a man-to-man and really forcing shots that Matt can see,” Figueras said.

“He’s really doing a good job in his outlet passing when he makes a steal or a save and allows us to get down the pool and set up our offense.”

Brethorst credits his success in the net to the Spartans' defensive stand against the Vikings, who are averaging 8.1 goals per game this season.

“Our game plan was to come out quick early and play strong. Our defense did a great job today and the shots that I was seeing were right on the spot so that I could get them easily,” Brethorst said.

Andrew Diemer and Keenan Berry led the Spartans with two goals each against the Vikings.

“We played pretty good defense all around and we really tried to play a good team game by spreading the scoring around,” Diemer said. “I thought we accomplished our game plan and came out on top.”

Berry noted that the Parkway North game allowed De Smet to get some playing time for nearly everyone on the roster.

“It was a team effort all around,” Berry said. “Diemer had two goals too and nobody really dominated the goal scoring. We came out hard and we were able to get some playing time for a couple of guys that normally don’t get into the games.”

The loss for Parkway North (5-9) was compounded later as the Vikings lost to Kirkwood, 11-5, and Lafayette, 10-6, later in the day. In its current five-game losing streak, Parkway North has been outscored 51-23. But that didn’t keep head coach David Morey from pointing out that his squad is making progress.

“We have a couple of guys out right now so we didn’t have a lot of subs in these games,” Morey said. “But I think that we’re making progress in each game and I think that our defense actually played better than they have all season long, so I was really happy about that. We had a couple of lapses but we’re improving in each game.”

Parkway North senior Keith Gitel scored the Vikings lone goal of the game against the Spartans.

“In the first quarter we were playing really good defense and pretty good offense,” Gitel said. “We just got too tired and most of us on the team have been sick and we’re missing our best player in Bret Lundstrom, who has a 103-degree temperature right now.”

De Smet was scheduled to play Monday night playing host to John Burroughs. Parkway North is back in the pool this Wednesday at 5 p.m. as the Vikings take on Saint Louis University High at St. Louis Community College–Forest Park.