By Michael Wojtychiw
Chicago Public League boys water polo has been dominated by two programs: Curie and Whitney Young.
Since 2007, no other CPL team other than those two have won the city title, with Curie winning the championship from 2007-15 and 2017 and Young winning in 2016 and the last four city titles.
The Condors defeated the Dolphins in the regular season, meaning they came into the city tournament as the top seed, but yet didn’t feel as if they were the favorites coming in.
“I think we’re motivated more than ever since we lost last year,” Curie goalie Uriel Galarza said.
“I knew since last year,” Curie coach Nate Cruz said when asked about when he thought he knew his squad could win a city title. “I knew they were able to do it. Obviously we have a new team this year. I have faith in my guys. You know, I see them six days out of the week, spend countless hours with them. And when you spend so much time and put so much work into the group and you’re successful, you kind of just build that confidence and faith.”
Regardless of whether they felt favored or not, it was the Condors that walked out of the UIC Natatorium Saturday afternoon with a 5-4, double-overtime win, claiming their first city title since 2017 and stopping Young’s four-year reign.
“We wanted to prove a lot of people wrong because we were the underdogs, even though we were the higher seed,” Galarza said. “That gave us a lot of motivation to win.”
Both teams played extraordinarily well defensilvely, especially both goalies, Curie’s Uriel Galarza and Young’s Emanuel Cisneros.
Prior to Luis Romero’s game-winning goal with 1 minute, 44 seconds remaining in double overtime, neither team had scored since David Montufar scored to tie the game at 4 with 2:09 left in the third quarter.
Galarza finished the game with at least 15 saves, including a beautiful tip save on a breakaway with two seconds remaining in the first overtime, preventing the Dolphins from taking a 5-4 lead of their own in overtime. His counterpart, Cisneros finished with at least eight saves, but helped alter others as well.
Milton Gama and Marlon Rodriguez joined Montufar abd Romero, who finnshed with two goals, as goal scorers for the Condors, but none was as big as Romero’s game-winner.
“It’s always good to score,” Romero said. “And I think coming into the game, I was just ready to do whatever I had to do for to play my part and to help the team win.”
Curie and its community love their boys water polo team. Both teams combined to fill more than half of the stands that go around the uIC pool, many of them wearing Curie blue and red.
For the Condors, that just helped motivate them even more, knowing that there were so many people there cheering them on.
I think like laying in front of such a big crowd, it kind of just helped me zone in,” Romero said.
Both teams now prepare for the state playoffs, as Curie has earned the three seed n the Lyons Sectional, while Young has the second seed in the St. Ignatius Sectional.
