Eastern Conference 16U Champion The Mavericks

In the East, the 16U teams had gathered in Ottawa on April the 26th - 27th  at the Nepean Sportsplex for the Eastern Conference Championships.

The Mavericks boys entered the weekend looking for their third straight conference championship.

In the semi-finals, they faced off against the Toronto Golden Jets who were playing some of their best water polo at just the right time. The game was close with the Golden Jets defence not giving the Mavericks much for the first couple of periods. While the Golden Jets put up a valiant effort, stopping the Mavericks high powered offence all game was a tough task. The Mavericks, who were led by Aidan Masters’ five goals and all-around strong play from Sergije Vrbaski, were eventually able to wear the Jets down and come away with a 15-7 win.

In the second semi-final, Montreal Machine battled the Ottawa Titans. The Machine took a 5-1 lead in the first thanks to Vladyslav Shabalin’s four goals, but the Titans would start to come back in the second period, scoring three straight while being spurred on by a raucous home crowd. Machine was not fazed by the crowd, however; and showed the mettle of a team that had been to the National Finals in two consecutive years by scoring 11 of the next 13 goals to record a 16-6 victory.

In the bronze medal game, the Titans held the lead for most of the beginning portion of the game, but team captain Bora Kaya helped kept his Jets in it, scoring five goals in the first three periods alone. Penalty trouble would prove important in this game as the Titans capitalized on four penalty shots throughout the game. Those goals provided the difference in a 10-8 Titans win.

In the gold medal game, the Mavericks offense showed why it scored over 400 goals during the regular season, as they scored seven goals in the first period alone. 

The Machine was able to hold on defensively in the second and was staying within fighting distance of Mavericks until another offensive explosion by Toronto in the 3rd. 

This time it was eight goals, and that was simply too much for Machine to overcome. 

Alexander James and Aidan Masters combined for 10 goals as they helped lead the Mavericks to their third straight conference championship and qualified for National Finals once again and will have another chance todefend their national title.

http://waterpolo.ca/News3826.aspx

• Constantinos Athanasiou
• Alexander James
• Luka Jankovic
• Henri-Malcolm Kamga
• Vladimir Kavagoe - Glavatsky
• Aidan Masters
• Kirshan Patel
• Dennis Polytov
• Mahmoud rouby
• Lazar Todorovic
• Sergije Vrbaski