South Florida Water Polo Club Medals at the 2025 Southeast Zone Championships, Tournament Round-Up
Earlier this month our club competed at the newly formed Southeast Zone Championships in place of the now defunct, Sunshine State Games, hosted by Next Level Water Polo at the renowned Orlando venue, the Rosen Aquatics Center. Competing on June 20th to the 22nd, the two South Florida Water Polo Club contingents that were sent north came home with hardware to their names.
The weekend began for our Pompano Beach based club on the 20th with our 18u team taking on local Orlando team, Team Orlando. The affair was a closely contest victory for our 18u boys who until the fourth quarter had not held a lead bigger than three goals until the last few minutes where a calm and composed group closed out the game to a score of 20-17, Sam Eastaugh led the charge with seven goals and two assists, supported by game-closing finishes by Xavier Caceres II who tucked away four goals of his own, three goals from Juan Lopez as well as a hat-trick of assists from both David Ranaudo and Aiden Mandieta along with several goal and assist contributions from Lev Konnikov proved to be a decisive factor in the match.
The second game for our 18u contingent was an early morning game against Miami-based powerhouse, Hialeah Storm, a game that began close in the first half with a score of 5-2 to South Florida, blew open in the third quarter as our boys created a massive 10-goal lead. The end result was a big 13-6 victory that included seven different goal scorers led by Xavier Caceres II with four goals, Sam Eastaugh with three and several other single goal contributions. In the goal Rafael Blaya manned the cage for the first three quarters to the beat of seven saves, including a stunning double save sequence in front of goal that helped to cement the lead for the club, the fourth quarter was handled by second goalkeeper, Darwin Davis.
The second game of day two of competition for the 18u team was a 19-6 victory over another Orlando local team, Orlando Thunder. The match started close with the South Florida 18u contingent coming out sluggish in the first quarter though retained a 2-0 lead, it was in the second quarter that the team kicked into gear to build an 8-1 halftime lead that they would further build on. The boys had a great spread with nine different goal scorers on 10 assists, led by Lev Konnikov and his four goals, Leo Blaya and Xavi Caceres II also scored a pair of hat-tricks, notably Alec Mehew, Lucas Verity and Benjamin Gober all scored their first goals playing 18u level water polo by converting their penalty shots respectively.
With three victories and no losses in bracket play, the 18u boys earned themselves a spot in the top three bracket, guaranteeing a top-3 finish in the tournament, however, for our hungry and competitive boys, only gold would suffice. Day three began with another 7 am wake-up call that saw them play against Barcelona Lions. From the start, the South Florida boys started out strong, opening a 4-1 lead in the first quarter and controlling the pace of the game from there. Several standout performances go to Rafael Blaya for his six saves, two steals and two assists, Lucas Levy who paced the attack with five goals and three assists, Sam Eastaugh who while being tasked to guard an opposing player who was also selected onto the U.S. Youth Futures National Team was still able to fire away three goals and provide three assists, and lastly Lev Konnikov who drew four exclusions and fired two goals past the Lions goalkeepers. They were supported by goals from Xavier Caceres II, a pair of goals from Max Possin, David Ranaudo and a stunning reverse turn into a beautiful finish from Matthew Orsini. With a big 15-7 victory, all our 18u boys had to do was seal a victory against Orlando United later in the day that would crown them as the champions of the Southeast Zone Championship for the 18u division.
Against Orlando United, the game was a cagey affair, however, battling through, the talent and comradery of our championship-tested team prevailed as the 18u boys won their final game behind a staunch defense led by our two goalies, Rafael Blaya and Darwin Davis, by a score of 14-4. The second half was where our boys showed their prowess, though they led the whole game by a close margin in the first half, the game blew apart in the second half as the South Florida defense proved impenetrable for long spells, offensively Lucas Levy led the charge with four goals, followed by Sam Eastaugh’s two goals and three assists, however, in true team fashion, along with our two multiple goal scorers, seven other boys would notch a goal to help the club earn gold, Alec Mehew, Leo Blaya, Lev Konnikov, Max Possin, Xavier Caceres II, David Ranaudo and Juan Lopez all finding the back of the net in a triumphant weekend for the 18u team.
Our 18u championship winning team. Front Row (Left to Right): Lucca McErlane, Max Possin, Leo Blaya, Aiden Mandieta, Juan Lopez, Lucas Verity. Back Row (Left to Right): Coach Gal Ben Kiki, Sam Eastaugh, Darwin Davis, Alec Mehew, Xavier Caceres II, Lev Konnikov, Rafael Blaya, Lucas Levy, Matthew Orsini, David Ranaudo, Coach Michael Goldenberg.
While our 18u boys dominated the field, our older Open Men’s team found themselves in several great games over the weekend, starting the weekend early in the morning of Day 2 with a win over Central Florida Suns, a closely contested match that would help cement our older team into the platinum bracket, the 9-7 win came in due to a strong defensive outing and timely goals from some of our impressive cast of elders such as UCLA alumni Eric Goldenberg, class of 2022 UC San Diego graduate Branden Nugent, two former Wagner College athletes, Cole Grady and Vuk Bulajic and current Mount St. Mary’s player, Jack Fox. The victory over Suns set up two new match ups for our master’s group, starting with almost an immediate game after the first one against Team Orlando, a team that consisted of several current Long Beach State University athletes, while our group was less in shape than their opponents, they brought the game to the Orlando-based squad coming out of the gates firing with big goals from our previously mentioned players as well as two big goals from Zev Halikman, taking a lead into the third quarter that included a stunning combination play to close the first half with deep swing pass from 18u coach Gal Ben Kiki to Vuk Bulajic who lobbed a beautiful live entry pass to Charles Mahalec who converted a gorgeous lob to assert that the South Florida squad was not to be trifled with. The third quarter proved rough for our team, several bad calls against us as well as some of the Team Orlando stronger players getting strong individual opportunities to score proved to be the difference as our master’s would end up surrendering the lead and falling to a score of 14-12.
With the bracket setup of the tournament, our elder squad had to hope that Tampa’s team would be able to defeat Team Orlando to retain a shot at playing in the gold medal game, however, later that night Team Orlando would emerge victorious, rendering the matchup between South Florida and Tampa to be a decider for bronze, winner would play in the third place game. With our tired master’s rolling out of bed to meet the Tampa team in the water at 7:55 am, it helped our elder players that Lev Konnikov and Sam Eastaugh provided double time this weekend, playing both 18u and master’s, their stamina proved crucial for our group that needed to swim with a Tampa team that likes to jump on the counter. The game would be a last-second shot galore, with Tampa scoring two last second-shots in the first and third quarter while our own Jack Fox fired a top corner beauty from our own half of the field to end the half. Leading the whole way our master’s proved themselves the winners with a 12-11 score that included some big plays and goals from some of the aforementioned players but also some of our older players in Enrique Antezana, Vedran Sosa and goalkeeper Jon Boehnker who had a crucial penalty save in the first half.
Our bronze medal winning master’s team. Front Row (Left to Right): Sam Eastaugh, Lev Konnikov, Gal Ben Kiki, Enrique Antezana. Front Row (Left to Right): Branden Nugent, Jon Boehnker, Zev Halikman, Vuk Bulajic, Vedran Sosa, Cole Grady, Eric Goldenberg, Charles Mahalec, Jac Fox, Coach Michael Goldenberg.
The third-place match against Patriot was fairly close match, but our South Florida masters controlled the pace the whole way through, with great goalkeeping by Jon Boehnker, our master’s truly turned on the flair for this match, with some brilliant individual play and lovely team play our South Florida master’s showed their abilities that they are renowned for. Vedran Sosa converted a stunning spinning finish at center on a dry entry pass to center, Cole Grady firing a no-look crosscage shot that laced the back of the net when least expected, Coach Gal blasting two nearside shots from the weakside when given a chance as well as connecting with Charles Mahalec on a stunning 6-on-5 finish that saw the ball swung from wing to wing for a brilliant catch-and-shoot, we even got a small glimpse into the past when we saw Eric Goldenberg, Charles Mahalec, Cole Grady and Gal Ben Kiki, all members of the early 2010’s South Florida teams that repeatedly placed top-10 finishes at national competitions such as U.S. Club Championships and USA Water Polo Junior Olympics, the four gave us a moment of brilliance after Gal and Cole attacked the opposing zone defense on the weakside and swung the ball to Eric who had curled up into position-2 as Charles had driven down and posted up, Eric showing his creativity uses a behind the head entry pass for Charles to tuck away a lovely lob finish. With a firm lead to end the game, our master’s finished the weekend on a strong note with a 3-1 record and bringing home more hardware.
Congratulations to all of our competing athletes! You make us all proud!
