After two unprecedented wins at the Wildcat Invitational yesterday, Men’s Water Polo returned to the pool Saturday to prove they are the team to beat in this year’s State Tournament. DP (9-1) dominated Miami Ransom Everglades, 14-6, and crushed two-time defending State Champion St. Andrews, 14-8, to complete a perfect tournament record (4-0) against the best the state has to offer over the last five years. Ryan Staton scored 17 goals and Jack Orchard netted 16 but most importantly, DP had at least five different goal scorers in every game.In the opener against Ransom, DP jumped on the board 37 seconds into the game when Ryan Staton lobbed a shot into the left corner and followed up 40 seconds later with a laser shot into the right corner off a feed from David James. Ransom responded with a goal but Jack Orchard lofted a perfect pass to Bruno Ferreira who smacked it into the mesh for a 3-1 lead at the 2:21 mark. Reed Davis delivered a perfect crossing pass to Ryan Staton for DP’s fourth goal and less than a minute later, Evan Staton intercepted a pass, drove untouched down the left side of the pool and fired a bullet into the left corner for a 5-2 advantage. With 51 seconds left in the quarter, Ryan Staton got back in the fold again, scooping up a loose ball in front of the net and driving it home for his fourth goal of the quarter. Up 6-3 in the second quarter, Ian Supra took advantage of a Staton crossing pass for a power play goal and paid the favor forward 30 seconds later, feeding Jack Orchard for the first of his two goals. At the 3:01 mark of the second, Orchard struck again with a blast into the lower left corner for a 9-4 lead. Ryan Staton’s fifth goal came at exactly the 2:00 mark off a shot from the point into the left corner to give DP an unfathomable six-goal lead. Less than a minute left in the half, Jack Orchard rocketed a shot off the crossbar but Ian Supra was right there to knock it home for an 11-5 lead. Ransom had no answers but DP had more questions. With 17 seconds left, Bruno Ferreira flipped a beautiful pass from the hole that Ryan Staton punched in for his sixth of the game to give the Panthers a 12-5 lead at the break. The third quarter saw sophomore Ian Supra double his goal tally with a shot into the right corner and a coast-to-coast drive finished off with a bullet into the right corner for the final margin.
After a dismal showing in their previous meeting with the Scots last year, DP had plenty to prove in the final game of the tournament. In the first quarter, Ryan Staton scored a pair of goals and David James executed a perfect one-timer off a Staton pass for a 3-1 lead but the Scots rallied for three goals to take a 4-3 lead in the second quarter. That was the only lead they would have. DP surged for five straight goals and it started with Jack Orchard’s blistering shot from the point into the top right corner of the cage that tied things up at 4-4. With 2:49 left in the half, Evan Staton worked through two defenders and delivered a goal into the corner for a 5-4 lead and the Panthers never looked back. Jack Orchard followed up with his best goal of the tournament. With 2:16 to go, Orchard took a pass from Reed Davis, drove into the middle but was swarmed by two defenders. The senior All-American pulled back from the pressure and delivered a fall-away drop shot into the back of the net for a 6-4 lead. For good measure, Ian Supra’s power play goal off an assist from Davis pushed the margin to 7-4 at the halftime break. In the second half, DP refused to let the Scots back in the game. Jack Orchard’s sidearm backhand goal at 4:42 prefaced his next goal, which was nearly identical to his fall-away in the first half. Driving in hard to the net, Orchard rose up out of the water, drawing the goaltender up, but lobbed a perfect shot over the keeper’s head for a 9-5 lead. Ryan Staton picked up his third and fourth goals off a skip shot and a power play goal to the inside corner and Orchard capped the quarter with a dart into the upper right corner for a 12-5 lead. In the final period, St. Andrews had one last rally with three goals but Jack Orchard’s shot from the point, his sixth goal of the game, and Ian Supra’s blast from the left corner closed out a superb tournament for the Panthers. Senior goalkeeper Collin Brandt rose to the occasion all weekend with sensational play in all four games, finishing Saturday’s action with a total of 19 saves.
Day two of the Wildcat Invitational saw Women’s Water Polo paired up with south Florida power Miami Ransom Everglades before sunrise and local rival Bishop Moore in their last game of the tournament. DP (7-3) played well in the former but fell to Ransom, 14-7, but in the finale, the Panthers dominated from whistle to buzzer in a 12-4 victory over Bishop Moore. Down 1-0 to Ransom in the first quarter, DP knotted the game up when Allie Magrino fielded a pass from Meredith Canty and sailed a shot into the right side of the goal with 4:03 left in the period. That would be the extent of DP’s scoring in the first half as the three-time defending State Champions scored six unanswered goals for a 7-1 lead at the break. The Panthers came out in the third quarter with renewed energy and enthusiasm and it paid off. DP outscored Ransom, 3-2, in the quarter as senior Shannon MacNeil recorded three of her team-high five goals. Just 32 seconds into the third quarter, MacNeil fired a shot under the goalkeeper’s reach into the lower right corner for the Panthers’ second goal of the game. With 2:24 left, DP capitalized on a Ransom penalty when Allie Magrino drove in from the right side and passed across the goal crease to Shannon MacNeil for a wide open score. MacNeil struck again with 42 seconds left in the quarter as Jacqueline James fed her a perfect pass that MacNeil pushed into the right corner to shave the deficit to 9-4. After Ransom added a score early in the fourth quarter, Rachel Dytrych got one back with a penalty shot that struck the crossbar and dove in at the 4:53 mark to make it 10-5. Dytrych picked up an assist less than a minute later when Shannon MacNeil scored her fourth goal, a low liner into the left corner. With 18 seconds left in the contest, Magrino passed to MacNeil again and the senior faked a shot and fired it clean into the upper left corner to close out the scoring for the Panthers.
Trailing 1-0 to the Hornets, Rachel Dytrych squared things up after taking the pass in front of the cage, turned around and fired it into the upper left corner with 3:24 left in the first quarter. Allie Magrino gave the Panthers the lead for good when she drove down the middle and tossed a shot into the right corner for a 2-1 lead as the teams headed into the second quarter. DP would score four consecutive goals from four different players to pull away convincingly. Rachel Dytrych started things off with a perfect shot into the right corner and Heather MacNeil took a crossing pass and buried it in the back of the net for a 4-1 lead. With 1:16 left in the quarter, Bishop Moore’s keeper made a great save on Katie Heffernan’s point blank shot but the senior was right there for the rebound and pushed it through for a 5-1 advantage. Shannon MacNeil capped off the first half with a sensational shot from the left point into the right corner of the cage as the Panthers held a solid 6-1 lead. The third quarter was eerily similar to the second as DP controlled all facets of the game. Just 19 seconds into the quarter, Rachel Dytrych tossed a shot into the top left corner to make it 7-1. Half a minute later, it was Shannon MacNeil again, this time with a cross cage goal at 5:09 and Dytrych finished out the third quarter with exceptional back-to-back goals. On the first, the senior took the feed inside, ducked underneath her defender, spun free and fired into the back of the net. The follow-up was a breakaway she took coast-to-coast for a 10-1 lead. In the fourth, Bishop Moore scored three times but DP answered the call when Shannon MacNeil drove in from the left side, passed to Allie Magrino driving in from the right, who passed back to MacNeil for a shot into the left corner to secure her second hat trick of the day. Freshman Emily Kliewer closed out the Panther attack with an outstanding drop shot into the back left corner as DP rolled to a 12-4 victory. Rachel Dytrych led the way with five goals (ten for the tournament), Shannon MacNeil finished with three (11 total), while Allie Magrino (four for the tournament), Heather MacNeil (two total), Katie Heffernan and Emily Kliewer added solo scores. Mary Campbell had a tremendous outing again with eight saves.
Men’s Volleyball shook off a tough Friday with losses to Boone (24-26, 27-29) and Park Vista (16-25, 17-25) and rebounded Saturday with three victories over Timber Creek (25-20, 26-28, 15-11), Cypress Creek (23-25, 25-17, 15-11) and Apopka (25-18, 25-19) to claim the Bronze Bracket at the DP Invitational. The Panthers (5-2) were led by Logan Maladecki (45 kills, five blocks, 15 digs), Andrew Johnson (35 kills, eight blocks) and Hunter Heide (41 kills, 25 digs, five aces). Juan Estrada added 25 digs at libero and Matt Rosenthal registered 143 assists.
Here’s the schedule for the upcoming week:
Monday:
Tennis at Lake Highland: 3:30
JV Softball vs. Lake Nona: 4:30
Women’s Lacrosse at Trinity Prep: 6:00
Tuesday:
Tennis vs. Boone: 3:00
Baseball vs. Timber Creek: 4:30
JV Water Polo at Lake Brantley: 5:00 / 6:00
Softball vs. Apopka: 5:00 / 7:00
JV Baseball at Timber Creek: 6:00
Flag Football vs. Osceola: 6:00
Men’s Lacrosse at Olympia: 6:00 / 7:30
Men’s Volleyball at East River: 6:00 / 7:30
Varsity Water Polo at Lake Brantley: 7:00 / 8:00
Wednesday:
Tennis vs. Marquette (Wisconsin): 3:00
Men’s Weightlifting at Wekiva / Apopka: 4:00
JV Baseball at Freedom: 4:00
Softball vs. Freedom: 4:00 / 6:00
Baseball vs. Freedom: 4:30
Men’s Volleyball vs. West Orange: 6:00 / 7:30
Women’s Lacrosse at Lake Nona: 7:00
Thursday:
Softball vs. Pine Castle: 4:00 / 6:00
Flag Football at Freedom: 6:00
Men’s Volleyball vs. Olympia: 6:00 / 7:30
Men’s Lacrosse vs. Trinity Prep: 7:00
Friday:
Baseball at Freedom: 4:00
Men’s Weightlifting at Edgewater / Jones: 4:00
JV Baseball vs. Freedom: 4:30
Softball at Cypress Creek: 4:30
Women’s Lacrosse at Olympia: 6:00 / 7:30
Water Polo at Lake Nona: 7:00 / 8:00
Saturday:
Track and Field at Bob Hayes Invitational (Jacksonville): 9:00 AM
Water Polo JV Jamboree: TBD
