Bellevue Tops Newport in Overtime Thriller

When Bellevue defeated Newport 9-2 in early September, both teams walked away knowing that little had been settled in the pool. Newport had competed without their two best players, seniors Lee Griffin and Will Helmer. But with Griffin and Helmer in the pool on Monday evening, the rematch turned into a tense overtime thriller. Behind the offensive firepower of juniors George French and Stuart McClelland, the Wolverines escaped with a 12-10 overtime victory over the rival Knights.

The Wolverines opened the game with a 3-0 first quarter lead thanks to goals from French, McClelland and sophomore Liam Naughton. But in the second quarter, the Knights used a blitzing counterattack and three goals from Griffin to take a 5-4 halftime lead.

After McClelland collected the first of his three ejections drawn to open the third quarter, Naughton evened the score at 5 on the ensuing man-up possesion. Later in the period, French and McClelland scored to put Bellevue up 7-5.  But in the fourth quarter, Griffin scored again to close the gap to 1. With 1:02 to play, Newport sophomore Andrew Pana scored on a counterattack to even the score at 8. With 30 seconds left to play, sophomore two-meter Marco Stanchi earned the third of his game-leading four ejections drawn, but an errant Wolverine pass sailed out of the pool and the Wolverines were unable to convert the man-up opportunity, sending the game into overtime.

In overtime, the Wolverines scored four goals — two from French — to put away the resilient Knights. Senior goalie Reed Hendrickson posted a strong game in the cage, blocking 13 shots and contributing three steals. Junior Scott Bowers once again led the Wolverines in assists, collecting five.

Bellevue (11-2) returns to action against Bainbridge on Wednesday at 3:30pm at Woodridge Pool.