By Mike Clark
As a senior co-captain, Morgan Butney brings veteran leadership for the Jones/Payton girls water polo co-op.
She also brings plenty of flair, in the form of a rarely seen no-look shot.
Butney worked her magic for a pair of scores in Jones/Payton’s 13-8 win over Young/Westinghouse in the Public League final Saturday afternoon at the UIC Natatorium.
Nita Thaci had a match-best six goals for Jones/Payton (22-2-1), which defended its title. Butney and Mya Garcia each scored twice.
Bianca Perez led Young/Westinghouse (15-10) with three goals, one more than Apolonia Garcia.
Is the no-look flip a specialty for Butney?
“Yeah, you could say that,” she said. “It takes a lot of coordination and knowing where you are in the pool. My experience from swimming butterfly, that helps. It’s a similar motion.”
When all the pieces come together, it’s quite a sight.
“It’s fun when you throw it and then you look back and you see it hits the back of the net,” Butney said. “It’s an awesome feeling.”
Count Jones/Payton coach Mac Varilla among those wowed by Butney’s favorite move.
“It’s a little surprise and today, the team was just, ‘Go for it,'” Varilla said. “Go into your bag, you’ve worked so hard.'”
So has Thaci.
“She’s been a great asset,” Varilla said. “She’s been our leading scorer. … Just her presence down in the center position creates a little havoc for our opponents.”
Besides defending its city title, Jones/Payton was trying to get ready for the IHSA playoffs, which start on May 3. The co-op is the top seed in its sectional.
“This is a great opportunity for us to just work on different wrinkles,” Varilla said. “Just get more in a rhythm together and work on timing.”
Butney’s first no-look goal just 38 seconds into the game put Jones/Payton ahead to stay. The lead was 4-0 by the 3:11 mark of the first quarter and Young/Westinghouse never got closer than three the rest of the way.
“It definitely builds our momentum,” Butney said of the city title.
Jones/Payton lost to Lane in last year’s sectional final.
“Hopefully we’ll get past (sectional) finals and go to state this year,” Butney said.
Lane 8, Lindblom/Goode 5
Avalon Altamirano scored four goals to help the Champions (10-11) finish third.Daphne Vasquez had two goals to lead Lindblom/Goode (13-8).
Photos by Jim Vincent/OSA
