LOCKPORT – With his team last competing on March 22, Lockport boys water polo coach Joe Lewandowski had plenty of reasons to be concerned how the Porters would respond when they hosted Lincoln-Way Central on Tuesday.

The Knights rallied to take a 6-5 halftime lead and still maintained a 9-8 advantage after three quarters to put themselves in a position to hand the
No. 7 Porters their first loss.

But Lockport relied on some great goalkeeping from Connor Hecker as well as strong defensive play to hold Central scoreless in the final period to help it improve to 8-0 on the season as it rallied for a 10-9 SouthWest Suburban Conference home win.

Hecker recorded half of his 18 saves in the fourth quarter and the Porters (8-0, 2-0) held the Knights (8-3, 3-3) scoreless in the final 8:18 to stave off the upset bid on a day where they were also missing some of their usual starters.

“Just trying to keep the guys motivated and focused was unbelievable,” Lewandowski said. “But we were able to get certain things done, like a lot of fundamentals work that we can always use. But when you’re short guys and are missing six or seven guys to the flu, we did the best that we could. That’s probably why in the beginning of the game I was so stressed out. We hadn’t played in 19 days and were down two players, so things were going to be tougher since we had to go deeper into the bench.

“There were a lot of juniors out there, so that’s promising, but we still have to clean up things. We had too many turnovers and almost every other possession we were putting ourselves in a bad spot. Lincoln-Way Central and us are physical, so we anticipated that, but it was a case of how deep could we go. Connor is a different goalie this year. He’s spotting things, reading the outside shot much easier and is really doing a good job of coming off the line. This team likes the pressure and want to see it in every single game.”

The Knights took their biggest lead at 9-7 with 1:18 left in the third quarter on a goal by Josh Fox. But the Porters got a score back with 27 seconds left in the quarter to make it 9-8.

In the fourth quarter, Hecker stopped nine attempts while his team was able to get the tying and winning shots past Knights goalie Chuck Evans. Tyler Thompson scored his fourth goal of the game with 4:45 to go to tie things and then the Porters regained the lead for good with 1:56 remaining when Simon Harmata sent a pass to Michael Bates, who scored the winner.

“We had a 19-day break and half of our team was sick for the first week of that,” Hecker said. “And today we were missing two starters, so we started off rusty. But in the second half, I feel like we picked it up and started playing our game. I wouldn’t be doing anything like this if it wasn’t for my defense. They’re sticking up for me and stealing the ball, so they’re making my job so easy, and I appreciate that, so all of the credit goes to them. I like this team because we’re all on he same page. If we’re not having fun, then we’re not learning.”

Holding onto its first lead since early in the second quarter, Lockport relied on Hecker to continue his dominance in goal and Harmata to come up with a late steal to end the drama.

“I’ve been going to therapy for my shoulder, and it’s been increasing getting better,” Harmata said. “My first game was at Andrew (March 22), so I’ve been itching to play. On the go-ahead goal, I saw the ball land in front of me and two guys are on me, and I saw Michael swimming down on the weak side and tossed it to him and he scored. We’re definitely a defensive team this year after being all about offense last year. We’re stepping up and trying new things, and it’s working out. In the end, we always put a smile on our face and fix what we do wrong.”

In the opening quarter, the Porters took a 4-3 lead when Thompson skipped one in from long range was time was winding down. The Knights also received two goals in that quarter from Ryan Burke, who led his team with three goals.

Central scored the final three goals of the opening half to go up 6-5 at the break. It also received two goals apiece from Adam Ceh and Tim Murphy while Mateusz Zalesko also scored twice for Lockport.

“We had two tries at the end to tie it, but couldn’t get it done,” Knights coach Pat Shaughnessy said. “We have six games this week, so the guys are just working on getting better. We played really well, and we’ve been clicking and are starting to really get it. Ryan played awesome and does so many things for beside scoring. He’s our leader and really showed that. Our eyes are on sectionals and we have to get better for that. The guys are all working together. I told them from the start, if they want to win, they have to work together.”