Wednesday morning senior Water Polo captain and goalie Mary Campbell signed her name to a college scholarship with Indiana University and nine hours later, the future Hoosier turned away 13 shots on goal in her best performance of the year as Women’s Water Polo stunned Olympia, 5-1, for the Metro West Conference Championship. After a scoreless first quarter, Olympia struck first but DP (12-5) responded with five unanswered goals to claim the program’s second title in three years. Senior Shannon MacNeil knotted the score at 1-1 with a shot from the point with 5:47 left in the half and with 1:45 to play, sophomore AllieMagrino tossed the eventual game-winner into the right corner for a 2-1 lead at the half. In the third quarter, the Panthers kept the defensive pressure on the Titans and it paid off. Rachel Dytrych’s power play goal into the top right corner just 34 seconds into the period pushed the lead to 3-1, but they didn’t let up. After an Olympia ejection, DP took advantage again when Allie Magrino found the back of the net for her second goal at5:27 to give the Panthers a 4-1 lead. Olympia had two solid opportunities to shave the lead down but Mary Campbell came up big in the cage twice. With 3:47 to go in thethird, she swatted away a strong shot on a breakaway attempt and again in the fourth quarter, after a Titan player got behind the defense, Campbell came out of the goal to cut down the angle and batted away what looked to be a certain score. With the momentum still with the Panthers, junior Meredith Canty, who played sensational defense all night, iced the victory with a power play goal into the ride side of the net for the 5-1 final. After the game, DP’s six seniors were honored for Senior Night: Mary Campbell, Lauren Dowd, Kate Pence, Rachel Dytrych, Katie Heffernan and Shannon MacNeil. With the conference schedule complete and the DistrictTournament next week, DP will head down to Miami this weekend for the Ransom Everglades tournament where they’ll open up against Miami Coral Reef Friday at1:00 pm.
Men’s Water Polo jumped out to a 6-0 first half lead and never looked back in an 11-4 Senior Night victory over Olympia that clinched their second consecutive Metro West Conference Championship. Senior captain Jack Orchard, who signed his National Letter of Intent for the United States Naval Academy earlier in the day, scored five goals and Ryan Staton added four as the top-ranked Panthers (16-1) cruised to their 12th consecutive victory. Senior goaltender Collin Brandt had himself a record-setting night with 18 saves,including a clutch save on a penalty shot in the third quarter. Orchard gavethe Panthers a 1-0 lead in the first with a loft into the left corner and junior Reed Davis doubled the lead just over a minute later with a backhander right through the heart of the cage with 4:01 to go. In the second quarter, senior Ryan Staton skipped a shot into the top of the box 53 seconds into the period and Orchard followed with a power play goal off the back iron for a 4-0 lead. Olympia had a chance to get things going at the 3:25 mark but a breakaway attempt was stuffed by senior Charlie Barnett to keep the lead intact. Staton hit for his second score of the game with a skip shot off a five-meter penalty with 1:11 to go and then kissed a rebound off the right post with just 35 seconds left to send the Panthers into the break with a 6-0 lead. Olympia broke the DP run with a goal to start the thirdbut the Panthers responded just 15 seconds later with a Jack Orchard goal into the top right corner to make it 7-1. The Titans scored again to cut thelead to 7-2 but RyanStaton answered back, bouncing his fourth goal into the leftcorner. With an 8-2 lead, senior Bruno Ferreira drove the length of the pool, took a pass from Collin Brandt down the middle of the lane, and punched it into the back of the cage with just 38seconds left in the third quarter. In the fourth, Orchard buried a pass from Reed Davis into theright side to make it 10-3 and closed out the night with his fifth score, aone-timer from Ryan Staton, for the final margin. Before their game, all 11 seniors were honored: Collin Brandt,Bruno Ferreira, David James, Brandon Burghard, Caden Merz, Ed Baker, Jack Orchard, Ryan Staton, Charlie Barnett, Austin Sellers and Avery Ford. DP will now travel down to Miami for the RansomEverglades Tournament, where they will take on MAST Academy Friday at 2:00 pm.
Jack Flaherty went3-4 at the plate and brother Mik eFlaherty took care of business on the mound, allowing three runs on seven hits over six innings as Baseball took down state-ranked DeLand,5-3. Four different players knocked in runs for DP: Zach Holbrook (double, RBI), Jakob Probst (1-3, RBI, run, walk), Walker Haymaker (single, RBI) and Nic Strasser(sacrifice fly, RBI).Billy Underwood walked and scored twice while Robbie Barrett (1-3,walk, run) and Dan Autiello (double, run) added to the victory as well. Ryan Larson came on in the seventh inning, allowed no base runners and struck out one to pick upthe save. DP (10-12) will head to Ocoee Friday.
Men’s Volleyball moved one game closer to a perfect Metro West Conference record and its third consecutive Metro West Conference title with a 25-10, 25-12, 25-10 sweep of host Edgewater. Hunte rHeide notched seven kills and ten digs with Logan Maladecki logging six kills and ten digs as well. Nana Kwarteng finished with ten digs and Matt Rosenthal closed out with 25 assists and five aces. DP (16-2) has now won 14 straight matches but will face a stern test this weekend at the Bishop Moore Invitational, opening up Friday with Miami Columbus and Tampa Berkeley Prep. JV Volleyball rebounded from a tough outing against Timber Creek with a 25-15, 25-11 victoryover Edgewater to move their mark to 9-2 on the year. Josh Richards talliedsix blocks and three kills and NateLyra picked up four kills. They’ll get some time off before hosting Bishop Moore April 23rd.
Men’s Lacrosse closed out their regular season at home against Hagerty yesterday and came up just short despite a tremendous comeback after spotting the Huskies an early six-goal lead. Down, 7-1, DP (11-3) roared back and scored five of thenext six goals to shave the margin down to two goals, 8-6, but Hagerty regrouped and held off the Panthers for a 15-12 victory. Dexter Wiley led the way with four goals and an assist, Ryan Totten picked up three goalsand assisted on a fourth, Doug Essig added a goal and three assists and BrettForward scored once and assisted on two more. Solo goals were turned in by IanDecker, Lucas Casas, and Soham Desai and goaltender CraigJackson registered 20 saves. Tuesday night, the second-seeded Panthers will compete in the program’s first playoff game, on the road at Lake Nona, inthe District semifinal at 7:30 pm. DP defeated Lake Nona, 16-9, in the regular season matchup. JV Lacrosse may have fallen to visiting Hagerty, 13-1, with Steven Weatherford scoring the lone DP goal in their season finale but that doesn’t detract from an extraordinary year as they finished with a record of 7-3, the best JV mark in program history.
