CLAREMONT – The Occidental College men's water polo team won two out of four games at the Gary Troyer Convergence this weekend, including victories over Washington & Jefferson and Penn State Behrend.
Game 1: Johns Hopkins 19, Occdental 6
The tournament started slow for Oxy with a 19-6 loss against Division III No. 3 Johns Hopkins University.
The Jaybirds used a 6-0 run in the first quarter to pull away early against the Tigers.
Oxy freshman Patrick Maloney (Santa Ana) led the Tiger offense with two goals. Fellow first year Tiger Nathaniel Whitmore (Lafayette), senior Joe Reynolds (Souderton, Penn.) and sophomores Dylan Rothwell (Cumberland Valley, Penn.) and Nick Heffner (San Diego) added a goal each.
BOX SCORE 1st 2nd 3rd 4th TOTAL
Occidental 0 1 2 3 6
JHU 6 5 4 4 19
GOALS SCORED:
Occidental-Maloney-2, Reynolds-1, Rothwell-1, Whitmore-1, Heffner-1
JHU-n/a
SAVES:
Occidental-Churchman-9, Needleman-6
JHU-n/a
Game 2: Occidental 11, Washington & Jefferson 10
In the second game of the tournament the Tigers came from behind and then shut down a late rally to defeat Division III No. 10 Washington & Jefferson 11-10.
The Presidents got on the board with a goal on their first possession of the opening quarter and added a second goal minutes later to take an early 2-0 lead.
Oxy cut the lead to one on a Sam Akiyama (Aptos) power-play goal, but Washington & Jefferson finished the quarter with another score to take 3-1 lead after one.
Akiyama, who led the Tigers with four goals in the game, scored his second of the match on a counter attack early in the second to make it 3-2.
Washington & Jefferson scored three goals in the next four minutes to run their lead to 6-2 with two minutes left in the half.
Heffner scored the first of his two goals in the game minutes later to cut the Presidents lead to three.
The two teams would trade goals to end the half with Washington & Jefferson leading 7-4.
The third quarter was all Oxy, as the Tigers used a six-goal run to pull ahead 10-7. After allowing an early fourth quarter goal, Oxy would score once more on break-away to make it 11-8 Tigers with about five minutes to play.
W&J would score twice in the final minute, but fell short on an attempt to tie the game in the closing seconds and the Tigers held on for their fourth win of the season.
BOX SCORE 1st 2nd 3rd 4th TOTAL
OCCIDENTAL 1 3 6 1 11
Wash & Jeff 3 4 1 2 10
GOALS SCORED:
Occidental-Akiyama-4, Heffner-2, Reynolds-2, Stabenfeldt-2, Rothwell-1
W&J-n/a
SAVES:
Occidental-Fish-8, Churchman-8
W&J-n/a
Game 3: Cal Baptist 16, Occidental 6
Division I No. 19 Cal Baptist Lancers scored the game's first eight goals on their way to a 16-6 win.
Trailing by an 11-1 score at the half, Oxy fought hard in the final two quarters led by the lefty duo of Reynolds and Maloney, who scored two goals apiece. Junior Jack Stabenfeldt (Larkspur) added a goal as did freshman Hank Franscioni (Salinas).
BOX SCORE 1st 2nd 3rd 4th TOTAL
Occidental 1 0 1 4 6
CBU 4 7 4 1 16
GOALS SCORED
Occidental-Maloney-2, Reynolds-2, Stabenfeldt-1, Franscioni-1
CBU-Custance-5, Carrohan-3, Jizmejan-2, Rodriguez-2 , K.Jismejian-1, Puig-1, Nichols-1
SAVES
Occidental-Needleman-5, Fish-4
CBU-Ramer-5, Vrooman-2
Game 4: Occidental 14, Penn State Behrend 6
In the final game of the tournament, Oxy used a strong defense to shut down Penn State Behrend and picked up a 14-6 win.
Leading 2-0 after the first, Oxy was paced by freshman Whitmore, who scored three times in the second quarter. Whitmore finished with a season high four goals in the game to notch the first hat-trick of his career as a Tiger.
Leading 6-1 at the half, Oxy extended the lead to 8-1 with two early goals in the third quarter. PSB mounted a comeback with back to back goals to cut the lead to five, but that was as close as the game would get.
Oxy finished the third quarter with back to back scores to take an 11-3 lead into the final frame.
Stabenfeldt finished the game with three goals, to give him a team high seven hat-tricks in 17 games played this season.
Senior goal keeper Scott Churchman (Houston, Texas) finished with a career high 15 saves in the game.
After starting the season with just two wins in their first 13 games the Tigers have now won three of their last five.
BOX SCORE 1st 2nd 3rd 4th TOTAL
Occidental 2 4 5 3 14
PSB 0 1 2 3 6
GOALS SCORED
Occidental-Whitmore-4, Stabenfeldt-3, Reynolds-2, Heffner-2, Wilson-1, Akiyama-1, Virshup-1
PSB-n/a
SAVES
Occidental-Churchman-15
PSB-n/a
Oxy returns to SCIAC play next Wednesday at 4:00pm with an away game against the University of Redlands.
