Upper Dublin upping its game, sweeps rival Souderton
UPPER DUBLIN >> With a high-powered offense and improving defense, the Upper Dublin boys water polo team continues its charge back to the state tournament.
“Everybody kind of wrote us off for this year,” said William Matthews, who played an all-around game Tuesday night against rival Souderton. “But everybody did a lot of good offseason work. And I feel like we’ve put ourselves in that position where we have a good chance to make it again this year.”
The Cardinals’ 12-9 victory over a tough Souderton squad was testament to that. Upper Dublin raised its record to 13-6 and continues to find new contributors every contest.
Said coach Chris Ianni, who guided UD to states a season ago: “They’re a young team. We have a lot of good sophomores who are dedicated to the sport, and they persevere.”
The boys’ win completed a sweep for the Cardinals, as the girls opened the home doubleheader with a 14-7 win over Big Red.
Josh Foster, the Cardinals’ lone senior starter on the boys side, led the way with six goals. Upper Dublin also got a pair of goals from Matthews and Odin Andrews as well as one each from Bailey Kaplan and Ben Wealand in holding off Big Red.
“We needed every bit of it,” Ianni said. “Souderton always brings their best so it was good to see them take that conference win today.”
Upper Dublin was forced to go to its bench, but that isn’t exactly a problem for the Cardinals. It’s there that they continue to unearth new gems.
“Souderton did an awesome job. We got into foul trouble early and they kept driving. It seemed like they were doing six in, six out to stay fresh. But credit to our guys — every time they scored, we fought right back,” Ianni said.
He then added: “This group of sophomores and freshmen has really dedicated themselves to the sport the past two or three years. They’re really into it, and it’s probably the best team we’ve had in the 10 years we’ve had the program.”
Foster has grown into quite a leader in the pool.
“He’s come a long way,” Ianni said. “He’s our stud in the water. And it’s only his third year playing.”
“We’ve been working on our defense a lot,” Foster said. “We’ve been getting better as the season has gone on. Today, against a good Souderton team, was a good time to see how much we’ve grown throughout the season.
“It really was an unknown what was gonna happen this season, and these guys have really stepped up.”
Matthews helped smooth things out for the Cards, as he added three assists and eight steals.
“We had struggled with consistency throughout the season but I feel like today, we had stretches that were really good,” he said. “We had stretches that weren’t great, but we ended up playing well enough to get the win.”
Upper Dublin broke a 3-3 tie and was able to stay in front, meeting every Big Red run with one of its own.
“We had been struggling with the press and getting the ball up the pool,” Ianni said. “And we had really been trying to get the ball moving around and keep driving on offense. It was good to see they did a nice job with that today.”
Upper Dublin was also blessed with the play of sophomore goalie Sebastian Isaacs, who stopped 19 shots.
A sign that Upper Dublin may be in line for a special run came recently with a thrilling win over Muhlenberg, where the Cardinals scored with a second left to force overtime, then won it with only a tick left in OT.
A team that graduated 13 boys a season ago is coming together quite nicely.
“They’re a young group, and they wanna be back (to states) again,” Ianni said.
The Cardinal girls, also eyeing a states spot as the season hits the stretch run, ran their record to 13-5.
Emma McCarthy poured in seven goals for Upper Dublin, Anna O’Malley and Abby Ruppel each had hat tricks, and Heather Weisberg added a tally. Sophia Horan made 15 stops in net to anchor the back end.
“The girls have been dynamite,” Ianni said. “They’ve been having a heck of a season. And I think they’ve been surprising themselves. We graduated a bunch last year and the girls had some big shoes to fill.”
