RIVERSIDE, Calif. —  After dropping nine consecutive games to start the 2011 season, the Occidental College men's water polo team got over the hump with a victory in their second game at the Lancer Invitational on Saturday.  The tournament got off to a slow start for the Tigers, as they fell to Fresno Pacific 13-7 to start the day, but Oxy came back for a  14-11 win over Riverside College in the afternoon match.

Occidental-7   Fresno Pacific University-13

The Tigers started strong against the Sunbirds in the morning game, jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the first quarter on back-to-back power play goals.  Sophomore Jack Stabenfeldt got the Tigers going, scoring the first of his two goals on Oxy's first possession of the game.  Senior Tai McDermott hit on a cross pass from Freshman Sam Akiyama on the very next possession. 

Leading 2-1 early in the second quarter, Oxy kept the momentum as McDermott converted  another power play goal. Fresno Pacific came back with a man-advantage goal of their own to cut the lead to 3-2. The Sunbirds tied the score with 1:00 to play in the half, but Akiyama scored his only goal of the game in the closing seconds of the half to give the Tigers a 4-3 lead at the break.

The second half belonged to FPU, as the Sundbirds would score 4 unanswered goals to start the third quarter and go up 7-5.  Oxy cut the lead to one after a time-out play led to a goal by Junior Joe Reynolds, but that's as close as the Tigers would get.

FPU would score the games next six goals to go up 13-6, before Oxy junior Dan Seagren converted on a power-play late in the game.

According to Sophomore Kevin Coleman, a lack of energy coming out of the break led to the second half downfall.

"We had a great start, but we were just too flat coming out in the third quarter." Coleman said. "We just couldn't keep the momentum up and we made some mental mistakes that opened the door for them."

Box Score                   1^st        2^nd       3^rd        4^th        TOTAL

Occidental                    2          2          1          2          7

FPU                             1          2          6          4          13

Goals Scored:

Occidental: McDermott-2, Stabenfeldt-2, Akiyama-1, Reynolds-1, Seagren-1

FPU: N/A

Saves:

Occidental: Reuther-12

FPU: N/A

Occidental-14   Riverside College-11

OXY jumped out to an early lead in the second game of the tournament, but unlike the morning contest, the Tigers never lost momentum.  Stabenfeldt once again got the Tigers going with some pin-point outside shooting as he scored twice in the first quarter from the perimeter. 

Senior Brendan Whitmore would score the first of his game high five goals to give Oxy a 3-0 lead before Riverside could get on the board.  The teams would trade one more goal apiece giving Oxy a 4-2 advantage at the end of the first.

Oxy used a strong press defense and counter attack to extend their lead in the second quarter.  Whitmore would score twice in the second frame, while Reynolds added two his three goals on the game to give the Tigers a 9-5 advantage at the break.

Head Coach Larry Zubrin was impressed with the teams ability to convert on the counter attack and credited that aspect of the game for the victory.

"We played solid defense in the front court, forcing a lot of low percentage shots, and we were able to finish on the offensive end."  Zubrin said.  "That's been a problem for us all season, so it was nice to see the guys turn the corner.  Hopefully we can parlay this effort into some of the upcoming games and get some momentum going heading into conference play."

Oxy continued to put pressure on RCC in the third, holding their opponent to just one goal in the quarter while adding three more goals of their own to go up 12-6 heading into the fourth.

The final quarter saw Riverside rally back, outscoring Oxy 6-2 in the fourth, but the Tigers managed to preserve the lead with some solid defensive stops late in the game.

Senior Richard Dybas, who scored twice, was one of four multi-goal scorers in the game for Oxy.  Freshmen Dlyan Rothwell, and Nick Heffner added a goal apiece in the contest.  For Heffner, it was his first score as a Tiger.

Box Score       1^st        2^nd       3^rd        4^th        TOTAL

Occidental        4          5          3          2          14

RCC                2          3          1          6          11

Goals Scored:

Occidental-Whitmore-5, Reynolds-3, Dybas-2, Stabenfeldt-2, Rothwell-1, Heffner-1

RCC-n/a

Saves:

Occidental-Churchman-12

RCC-n/a