LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Everything was moving along just fine for the Occidental College men's water polo team in a back-and-forth battle with Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday.

But once the teams came out of the locker room for the second half, the Sagehens went on a 10-0 run, putting the game out of reach and beating Oxy 15-8 at Taylor Pool.

Tai McDermott (Palos Verdes) led the Tigers (3-15, 0-1) with four goals and Richard Dybas (Los Banos), Jack Stabenfeldt (Larkspur), Kevin Coleman (Hunnington Beach) and  Sam Akiyama (Aptos) each had one.

Trailing 1-0 late in the first quarter, Akiyama got the Tigers on the board with a power-play goal on a cross pass from Brendan Whitmore (Lafayette).  The Sagehens would re-claim the lead on the next possession, but McDermott's back to back goals put Oxy up 3-2 at the end of one.

The teams would continue the back and forth effort into the second quarter.  Both squads would trade two goals apiece, before McDermot connected on back to back scores to give Oxy a 6-4 lead.  The senior co-captain has now notched four consecutive hat-tricks and has scored 15 goals in his last four games.

Trailing by two with 2:00 to play in the first half, the Sagehen surge would begin.  Pomona-Pitzer responed to three consecutive Tiger miscues with counter attack goals, and jummped into a 7-6 lead at the half.

The Tigers were held scoreless in the third quarter, while Pomona tacked on three more goals to go up 10-6 heading into the fourth.  

The Pomona-Pitzer run would continue into the fourth as they scored three more goals before Oxy would finally end the dought  with two late goals. 

Pomona-Pitzer's Jason Cox led the Sagehens (5-13, 1-0) with four goals and Ryan Higgins had three.