On Monday, Oct. 9th, the boys water polo team challenged Austin High in their bi-district playoff game, the first of their postseason. After winning the district title last week, the boys were confident in their abilities to overtake the Maroons. 

Before starting, Head Coach Matt McBrearty and the boys came up with a plan on how to deal with specific Austin players. This included creating a defensive scheme   specifically to stop Kelly Murphy, who was an exceptionally strong shooter and came into the game with 98 goals on the season. During the game, Zack Hobbs ‘24 was in charge of defending Murphy and successfully weighed him down to prevent him from making goals. 

“We had played these guys before and we knew kind of what their game plan was, so we knew how to adapt accordingly,” Hobbs said. “Coach McBrearty decided we needed to put the most annoying person on [Murphy], so we planned to put me on him because we knew he would get frustrated. “ 

In the first quarter, Captain Freddy Browarski ‘24 led the charge by scoring three goals, putting the Warriors up early. However, the Austin defense was solid and the Warriors had a difficult time getting past them without running out the shot clock. Forced to adapt, the Warriors found a strategy that widened an opening for the set player to score a goal. 

“On offense, we did a lot of drives very well, which is something we had been practicing regularly over the course of our practices,” Hobbs said.“It was good to see that executed during the game.” 

Getting down the length of the pool faster allowed for more time to look for quick passes. This efficiency worked in the Warriors’ advantage as by the end of the third quarter, the combined efforts of Browarski, Jack Beneviste ‘24, and Ben Meijers ‘25 had pushed their goal count of 10 to double the Maroons’ 5. Though Austin continued to inch forward on the scoreboard, the Warriors fought to match them, even earning a 5-meter penalty shot as the Maroons made faulty plays near the end of the game. With a minute left on the clock, Beneviste made the final goal and pulled the score to 14-7, concluding the end to a victorious night. 

The Warriors will compete next on Friday, Oct. 13, in their second playoff game versus Davenport.