Pioneer faces off against Skyline for the district title

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John Metzler

Skyline and Pioneer shake hands at the end of the game.

The crowd stilled as it waited for the game-starting whistle, as the whistle blew, Pioneer junior Danny Zacks, and Skyline senior and team captain Ryan Vandermeulen sprinted to the center, in a race for first possession of the ball. Vandermeulen won and passed the ball to a teammate, who then passed the ball to Matteo Procoppe who made a clean shot on goal, scoring the first goal for the Skyline Eagles in the district water polo championship game against the Pioneer Pioneers.

Pioneer’s goalie, Lorenzo Binetti, threw the ball down the pool to Zacks. Zacks made a shot on goal, which was blocked by Skyline’s goalie, Duncan Kennedy. Skyline recovered the rebound and took the ball down the pool. Jason Wegryn took a shot on goal for Skyline, which was blocked by Binetti. The block was recovered by Skyline and soon after a goal was made by Vandermeulen making the score Skyline: 2 Pioneer: 0.

Two minutes later a third goal was made by James Rozsypal for Skyline. With just over a minute and a half left in the first quarter Martin Deegan made the first goal for Pioneer setting the score to 3:1 at the end of the first quarter.

For the first half of the second quarter, Pioneer matched Skyline in goals, but this streak ended when Rozsypal and Vandermeulen scored two consecutive goals for Skyline bringing the score up to Skyline: 7 Pioneer: 3. Skyline had a strong defense for the remainder of the quarter blocking Pioneer’s two shots on goal and prevented any goals from being scored for the rest of the quarter.

The first goal of the third quarter was scored after just over three minutes, by Dan Metzler with assistance from Deegan, Zacks and Jeffrey Ding. Deegan recovered the ball and it was passed from Metzler, to Ding, to Zacks who shot a quick second goal for Pioneer. A minute later Skyline retaliated scoring two goals in quick succession. With about a minute remaining in the third quarter, Colin Stroud scored a goal for Pioneer drawing the score up to Skyline: 9 Pioneer: 6 at the end of the third quarter.

Two minutes into the fourth and final quarter Skyline scored again goal, which was immediately followed by Pioneer scoring a goal of their own. Aaron Crane scored another goal for Skyline, and Metzler soon followed with two goals for Pioneer. With just over a minute and a half left in the game, Pioneer called a time-out, when the time-out ended the team appeared to have gotten an extra dose of determination, but they were unable to pull ahead. Both teams scored a final goal bringing the final score to Skyline: 12 Pioneer: 10.

Both teams played very strong games, but Skyline had a stronger offense and learned the weaknesses of the Pioneer defense faster than Pioneer could adapt. In the second half of the game Pioneer outscored Skyline, but were unable to overcome the substantial lead created in the first half of the game.

Both teams advanced to the regional tournament the weekend of October 31.