LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Oct. 16, 2010) – Down to the wire, the Tigers topped the Poets in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener behind a buzzer beater goal from senior Greg Benz to give Occidental College a 12-11 come-from-behind victory over No. 4 ranked Whittier College at Taylor Pool this morning.
Having been down the entire game, the looked to Joe Reynolds with just under four minutes to play for their first lead of the afternoon. Knotted up again at 11-11 with just 18 seconds to play, the Tigers then took the lead when it mattered most, as time expired in regulation when Benz found the back of the net with just .84 seconds to fire off a shot. As the ball hit the back of the net the team and crowd erupted.
Whittier opened a 4-1 lead in the first quarter behind a hat-trick from Erick Gonzalez, who finished with four goals. After Brendan Whitmore got the scoring started for Oxy, Reynolds cut the deficit in half, 4-2, after the opening quarter.
Each team scored twice in the second stanza. A last second effort by the Poets was turned away by Kyle Reuther to keep the teams within a pair as WC held a 6-4 advantage at the mid-way point of the game.
Again in the third quarter the teams exchanged goal-for-goal, each adding four to their respective totals.
Reynolds won the sprint and in a quick man-up situation the Tigers look to Benz who scored the first of three third quarter goals. Whittier, however, scored three consecutive times to open up a three-goal, 10-7 lead with under a minute to go in the frame. Josh Kantor added a goal to bring the Tigers back within two at 10-8 entering the final period.
As things unfolded in the fourth quarter Tai McDermott erased the WC lead to tie things at 10-10. The Tigers' defense then stepped up huge, forcing WC to turn the ball over on a shot clock violation. Moments later Reuther came up with back-to-back saves with 2:47 to go and turned away another Poets' shot 10 seconds later in an Oxy man-down situation. Overall the Tigers prevented seven of 11 5-on-6 situations today.
On the other end of the pool, Oxy was able to convert five of eight 6-on-5 opportunities into goals. Benz led all players with five goals while McDermott and Reynolds netted two apiece with three and four assists, respectively while McDermott drew three ejections. Kenji Hammon scored the first goal of his collegiate career.
Splitting time in front of the cage, Reuther came away with nine saves and a pair of steals while Scott Churchman recorded six blocks and had one steal. Reynolds also tallied two field blocks and added two steals in the game. McDermott and Richard Dybas were each credited with a field block as well.
Occidental (4-13, 1-0 SCIAC) plays a pair tomorrow at the Golden West Tournament in Huntington Beach, Calif.
Article by Tracy Maple, Sports Information Director
