CLAREMONT, Calif. — What began as a back and forth barn burner between the Occidental College and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's water polo teams turned into an easy 15-4 win for the CMS.

The Stags opened the game with a goal at 7:39 mark of the first quarter.  Oxy immediately responded when Tai McDermott (Palos Verdes, CA) dropped a shot in the cage just 15 seconds later.  CMS upped the lead to 3-1 after back to back goals later in the quarter, but the Tigers clawed back in the final 2:00 minutes of the first with back to back scores of their own.  The Stags would score once more in the closing seconds of the first to take a 4-3 lead.

The second quarter was more of a defensive standoff, with neither team managing a goal through the first five minutes of the period.  CMS finally broke the ice with two scores in the sixth minute of play.  However; before the half would end Oxy's Joe Reynolds (Souderton, PA) scored on a power play to cut the lead to 6-4 at the intermission.

The Tigers only managed to draw two exclusions in the first half, but they converted on both power plays.  Reynolds and McDermott led the Oxy attack with two goals apiece.      

The second half was a different game.  Down by two early in the third Oxy's Kevin Coleman  (Huntington Beach, CA) was whistled for his second penalty of the game and his third exclusion overall resulting in game major.  On his way out of the pool, Coleman was whistled for a game misconduct penalty which resulted in back to back penalty shots for the Stags.  

The mishap seemed to take the wind out of Oxy's sails.  The Tigers tried valiantly to recover, but a stingy Stag defense kept them at bay for the remainder of the game.

With the loss the Tigers conclude the regular season of SCIAC play with 2-5 record, good enough for the #6 seed heading into next weekends conference tournament.

Oxy will face off against the No. 3 seeded University of Redlands in round one. The two teams met on Oct. 22 at Redlands where the Bulldogs held on for a 9-7 win. The game will be played next Friday at Las Flores Park in La Verne with an 11:45 a.m. start time. The SCIAC tournament continues through next Sunday with all games at Las Flores Park.           

BOX SCORE               1st        2nd     3rd      4th      TOTAL

Occidental                  3          1          0          0          4

CMS                             4          2          5          4          15 

Goals Scored:

Occidental-McDermott-2, Reynolds-2

CMS-Schiavoni-4, Lefor-2, Lee-2, Baier-1, Tohmasson-1, Wes-1, Holland-1, Toumi-1, Ruskin-1, Polyakov-1

Saves:

Occidental-Reuther-8

CMS-Mann-9