By Mike Clark
Isaac Gross had been waiting for this moment.
The Lane senior scored seven goals on Thursday night as the Champions beat visiting Curie 18-8 in Public League Gold boys water polo.
Brayan Ruiz and Alex Ivascu each added three goals for Lane (7-2, 3-1), which is believed to have never won before in the series. Online records at MaxPreps.com go back to 2017 and show no Lane wins in that stretch.
“From what I know, that’s probably the case,” Gross said of Lane never beating Curie before. “It’s been a rough past few years here. We’ve been struggling to just get over that hump. And I think finally — the group of guys we have, we’re finally getting over that hump.”
Lane opened a 3-0 lead in less than four minutes and never had less than a two-goal lead after that, gradually stretching its advantage.
“For us, it’s huge,” Gross said. “Just the confidence we get from this, you can build off that. And just even for the program, just build on this for the future.”
The Champions lost to the Public League’s other perennial power, 2022 state runner-up and 2023 quarterfinalist Young, 14-13 in double overtime on March 19.
“That was a tough one,” Gross said. “We were coming into that game very confident. And I think we all thought as a team, we could beat that team.”
But instead of getting discouraged, the Champions got back to work. And now they have a signature win in the city.
Next on the to-do list is getting ready for the postseason.
As is common in the Public League, Lane has a shallow-deep pool: shallow on one end, deep on the other. IHSA state series games will be played in deep-deep pools and the Champions have some games coming up in those to get acclimated for the change.
“I think that brings even more confidence,” Gross said. “All of us play club, we all play deep-deep all year round (except in) high-school season. So we all know what we’re getting into. Playing here in shallow-deep, it’s kind of a whole different sport.”
First-year Lane coach Kerry Goodspeed appreciates her athletes’ buy-in so far.
“I feel so lucky that I got to come into a team that has worked so hard in previous seasons and in the offseason to develop strong water-polo skills.
“Those kids showed up in my office on the first day they knew I was their coach and they said, ‘Coach, we want to win city.'”
Freshman Noah Hoop scored three goals, while freshman Kevin Gama and junior Antonio Sandoval-Pazarin had two each for Curie (6-9, 3-1).
“I have five freshmen on the roster,” Condors coach Nate Cruz said. “It’s basically a brand-new team except for my two seniors. … I have a lot of 14-year-olds on my team. You go from playing age-group to playing (against) 18-year-olds. it’s a pretty big jump for them.”
But Cruz has seen signs of growth.
“The more practice we get, the more games we get in, just the overall experience — we’re going to be back on top where we used to be in about two to three years.”
Photos by Jim Vincent/OSA
