North Allegheny water polo reflects on emotional state title run

By: John Grupp
Saturday, December 6, 2025 | 11:01 AM

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The greatest season in the history of North Allegheny water polo was a mixture of elation and joy sprinkled with grieving heartache.

But what a ride it was.

The Tigers rolled to a 22-1 record and won their second consecutive state championship, while helping their beloved coach cope with the mid-season loss of his father.

“It was also a very tough and emotional time for me,” said coach Damir Matanovic, whose dad, Aleksandar, died in early October in his native Montenegro following a battle with cancer. “This was all for him. I fought hard for him. The team kept me going. They drove me to give them my best all season long.”

No one was better than North Allegheny this season. One year after a surprising run to its first state title since 2013 in a sport dominated by Philadelphia-area schools, top-seeded North Allegheny stormed to the gold medal, capped with a 13-8 win over Eastern Pennsylvania power La Salle on Nov. 8 at Wilson in the finals.

North Allegheny left nothing to chance in its bid to repeat. The Tigers routed perennial power North Penn, 21-3, in the quarterfinals and topped Upper Dublin, 14-6, in the semifinals in a rematch of last year’s four-overtime championship thriller.

In the 2025 finals, senior center Callan Bunger scored six goals and sophomores Filip Malezanov and Tabari Morgan added three goals apiece.

Two-time first-team all-state senior goalie Michael Stefanko made eight saves.

“I think they played the best water polo that’s ever been played in Pennsylvania,” said Matanovic, in his ninth season. “They dominated all season long. They went through the challenges and setbacks and hard times. But they embraced it. They loved the training. They were fully committed, and (because of that), the games were easy for them.”

The Tigers’ only loss was to Greenwich (Conn.), 11-10, on Sept. 27 in Beast of the East Tournament. NA had beaten Greenwich, an elite East Coast program, 10-9, in overtime in a tone-setting season opener Sept. 12 in Erie.

North Allegheny, one of 22 water polo programs in Pennsylvania and the only WPIAL school, started preparing for this season shortly after winning last year’s title. They competed as a club team in Junior Olympic events in February in Florida, in the PA Cup in mid-June and in Texas in late July. About a half-dozen players trained in Montenegro for two weeks in June.

Bunger, who scored a team-high 106 goals along with 16 assists and 36 steals, and Morgan (102 goals, 45 assists) joined Stefanko as first-team all-state selections.

Senior Mason Shantz (34 steals), whom Matanovic called the best defensive player in the state, and senior Logan Purnell (28 steals) made second-team all-state, and sophomore Filip Malezanov (33 goals, 54 assists, 42 steals) was third-team.

Rounding out the six seniors on the 21-man roster were wing Philip Liulias, who scored three goals in a 21-11 Senior Night win over McDowell, and driver Siddh Kapil.

“This team hasn’t been built overnight,” Matanovic said. “It’s been seven, eight years. They were very dedicated, and they didn’t take this for granted. … We made (the other top Pennsylvania teams) look weak. But actually, they were not weak. They were very strong teams. Super strong teams. But we were kind of the next level.”

After the death of his father, Matanovic returned to Montenegro for a week and missed a showdown with previously undefeated La Salle on Oct. 11 in the Erie Challenge 2. The Tigers, with assistant Vojo Pekovic serving as head coach, rallied for a 6-5 win after trailing 5-2 at halftime.

The players had learned a few days earlier that their coach needed to make a hasty return on a roughly 15-hour flight to Southeastern Europe.

“That really hurt us,” Stefanko said. “He had to leave immediately, so we didn’t get to say goodbye. We were very saddened. But we knew the only way we could help in the moment was to bring all of the energy that we had toward La Salle. We were doing it for Mata.

“It was a heartbreaker. When he came back, we knew the best thing we could do was keep winning for him and get back to a sense of normalcy, which I guess this season was winning.”

Tags: North Allegheny