Bradley-Bourbonnais falls at home as Andrew pulls away in second half

BRADLEY − The Bradley-Bourbonnais boys water polo team found itself in a close game early on against Andrew on Thursday. The Boilermakers trailed by just one goal at the end of the first quarter, but the Thunderbolts soon started to grow their lead.

Unfortunately for the Boilermakers, junior Charlie Quigley recorded three ejections early on and fouled out, and the defense struggled the rest of the way. Andrew outscored them by 10 in the final three quarters to win 15-4 and send Bradley-Bourbonnais to a 2-3 record in the early stages of the season. The Thunderbolts improved to 2-3 with the win.

Bradley-Bourbonnais got on the board first with a goal from Zach Morrey in the opening minute, but Andrew responded with three goals over the next two minutes. Quigley found the net for the Boilermakers with 4:06 to go in the first, and the score stayed 3-2 until early in the second quarter.

The Boilermakers were soon without Quigley, however, which proved to be a difficult obstacle for them to overcome.

“He’s one of our smallest guys, but he’s lightning fast and he plays really smart,” Bradley-Bourbonnais coach Keith Martin said. “He’s one of our crucial defenders and our primary concern in these games is defense. So when we lose someone like him it’s going to affect the team a lot.”

Andrew scored the first three goals of the second quarter and nearly shut the Boilermakers out in the period before Morrey scored again with just 18 seconds left in the half.

But the Thunderbolts did not let Bradley-Bourbonnais enter halftime on a high note, scoring with just four seconds left to make it 7-3 Andrew at halftime.

Jett Baker scored the lone goal for the Boilermakers in the second half with 4:58 left in the third quarter, making the score 9-4. Andrew then scored six unanswered goals to close things out.

Thursday’s matchup was the first between these teams since the Boilermakers beat Andrew 12-11 in the sectional semifinals last season, giving them their first-ever trip to a sectional title game and also giving them revenge for a loss to Andrew on March 14 of that season. Bradley-Bourbonnais also beat Lincoln-Way Central in the postseason last year, in the game prior to the semifinal matchup with Andrew, after losing to the Knights early in the year.

Martin said the team can sometimes struggle early in the season as the players transition over to water polo, but he anticipates them to keep improving like they did last season, and possibly make some noise against teams that beat them the first time around.

“So many of these guys on other teams are playing nonstop, year round,” he said. “We have guys that play water polo only three months of the year, so in those three months we become exponentially better. Other teams, their rate of improvement kind of slows down.

“Every coach we’ve played so far said they’re excited to see us at the end of the season, especially based off how last season turned out. All these teams beat us, and then in the playoffs we knocked them out one by one.”

As the season progresses, there are a few things Martin said he would like to see improve. While he said the JV team’s large group of sophomores has been performing well and is expected to provide the varsity team with a talented group next season, a number of younger players on varsity this season still need to find their footing.

“They have the skill, they have the endurance and they have the swim technique, but they see these bigger guys and kind of get broken down in terms of confidence,” he said. “So building their confidence is something I’m looking forward at the varsity level so they can actually perform to their potential.”

After playing five matches in the first five days of the season, the Boilermakers have a bit of a break from competition before heading to the Maine East Invite on March 29.