Welcome back to the boys water polo season, where the Lockport Porters are taking on the Waubonsie Valley Warriors who finished 2024 as the number 8 ranked team in Illinois. Both teams look for their first win of the 2025 water polo season. This highlight is sponsored by BMO.
Dawid Kowalewicz helps Waubonsie to a hot start
The Warriors start with possession and look to strike as Waubonsie finds Dawid Kowalewicz for the opening points of the 2025 water polo season.
Waubonsie looks to continue to feed the hot hand as Kowalewicz again finds the back of the Lockport net, giving the Warriors an early 2-0 lead two minutes into the first quarter.
With less than 30 seconds left to go in the 1st, the Warriors goalkeeper looks to clear the ball when he finds his teammate Ben Meier afar as he knocks down his first goal of the year. Waubonsie Valley leads 3-0 at the end of quarter one.
Meier looks to continue where he left off at the end of the first as he drills in the shot, keeping the Warriors ahead with a 4-0 advantage.
Lockport stays alive with a pair of late first half goals
Lockport looks for anything to get some points on the board and finds it from Gavin Vieceli who swims the ball in and delivers the goal.
Vieceli looks to keep his team on the game as they run the fastbreak. Williams Utz finds Vieceli as he drains it with back-to-back goals. However, Lockport still trails 6-2 at halftime. A team-high four goals in the game for Vieceli.
Starting the second half, Lockport comes out swinging as Utz finds the first points of the second half for the Porters with a score off the deflected pass.
The Warriors look to respond to the Porters’ goal as Daniel Niv finds Ben Meier for the tip-in shot to maintain the multiple-goal lead.
The Lockport offense looks to respond as they look for the hot hand, Vieceli, and he knocks it in. The Warriors still lead 9-5 with four minutes left in the 3rd.
Late in the third quarter, Lockport throws up a miss and follows up with the putback attempt from Kristian Karas. Lockport is down by just three at 9-6.
The Warriors start the year with a win
The Warriors look to find their first half flow on the offensive side as Arseni Branavitski locates Kowalewicz in transition for the Waubonsie score. That helps put the game away as the Waubonsie Valley boys water polo starts the season with a 12-8 victory over Lockport.
For more prep sports highlights, visit the Naperville Sports Weekly page!