Recap Via StlToday.com

ST. PETERS • The St. Louis University High water polo team did what it was supposed to do Saturday evening, putting together perhaps its best opening half of the season and going on to a 17-7 victory over second-seeded Lindbergh for the district championship at the Rec-Plex.

The district title is the Junior Billikens' 17th overall and their seventh in the last 10 seasons. SLUH finished the season 26-2 and with victories in their final 15 matches. The team's only losses this season came to Chicago-area powerhouse Fenwick.

Second-seeded Lindbergh finished 24-6.

"It feels really great. We won sophomore year, but, as seniors, there's nothing better than being able to go out on top like this,'' SLUH senior Colin Derdeyn said. "We came close last year (losing 13-12 to Parkway West) and this year, we really made it a point to make sure that it wasn't close."

Arthur Larson, the Junior Billikens goaltender, added: "We wanted to come out fired up, put a bunch of goals on the scoreboard and make it really hard for them to fight their way back.''

The Junior Bills put on a virtual clinic in the first half, dominating the Flyers at both ends of the pool while scoring five goals in each of the first two periods. Top-seeded SLUH led 13-0 before Lindbergh finally got on the score sheet.

"I know that's what most people expected, but I was nervous,'' SLUH coach Paul Baudendistel said. "You never know what's going to happen. (Lindbergh's) a good team and you saw how quickly they were able to score there in the second half. But obviously, I was pleased with the way our guys came out. We were strong at both ends, the defense led to the offense and we did a great job of finishing our chances.''

Larson agreed: "That first half was probably our best water polo of the season.''

Franklin Rosario, who led a balanced SLUH attack with four goals, had a first-quarter hat trick. He opened the scoring with a breakaway goal following a steal, made it 3-0 on a lob shot and added the Junior Bills' fourth goal on a pass from Eric Caselton.

Derdeyn, SLUH's top scorer, had the other two early goals. He converted on a length-of-the-pool outlet pass from Larson for goal No. 2 and finished off a pass from Caselton to make it 5-0.

In the second quarter, SLUH received a pair of goals from Chris Kreienkamp and single tallies from Dan Walsh, Caselton and Mark Franz.

Franz's goal, with 1.2 seconds left in the half, came off a pass from Derdeyn.

"That's our seniors,'' Baudendistel. "They're great players and extremely unselfish players.''

Derdeyn explained it simply: "Mark had the better shot.''

Franz scored again, converting a pass from Michael Kennedy after a Kennedy steal to open the second-half scoring. Walsh followed with a lofted shot and Caselton scored on a skipped shot that eluded Lindbergh goalie Phillip Harter for a 13-0 SLUH lead.

The Flyers, making their first title-match appearance since winning the title in 1985, staged a mini rally to score six of the game's next eight goals to trim the lead to 15-6 with about four minutes to play.

Ethan Finlinson, the area's leading scorer, led the Flyers second-half surge with four goals, including a pair from long range. Martin Vaupel added a pair of goals for Lindbergh, which also got one from Tim Bavlsik.

"We knew what we were going up against. They're a very dominant high school team,'' Lindbergh coach Andy Butler said. "But I'm just really proud of my guys. We got off to a little bit of a slow start, but we battled back a little bit there in the second half. We had a great season and getting to this game was a great accomplishment. Nothing to hang our heads about.''

SLUH, which led 15-3 after three quarters, received late third-period goals from Derdeyn (on another long pass from Larson) and Rosario. Walsh and Kreienkamp had the SLUH goals in the fourth quarter.

SLUH received four goals from Rosario, three apiece from Derdeyn, Kreienkamp and Walsh and two-goal games from Franz and Caselton.

"Our goal was to play our best game and I thought we accomplished that, especially in the first half,'' Baudendistel said. "Relative to the competition we faced, this was one of the most dominant teams ever. It's hard to gauge from year to year, but these did all they could do. Winning by 10 in the championship game is something special.''