Photo By Toby Gassner
Los Angeles, CA — Wednesday night, No. 6 Occidental men's water polo hosted No. 5 Chapman University for an exciting game.
In the first sprint, attacker Kellen Radtkey (Santa Barbara, CA) faced off against Chapman's Philip MacLean. It was close, but MacLean just barely got his fingers on the ball before Radtkey. A five meter penalty was drawn by Wilson Noll (Ann Arbor, MI), and Keegan Klein (Bellevue, WA) took the penalty shot. However, Chapman's goalkeeper Owen McNicholas was able to prevent the attack. The first goal of the game would be awarded to the Panthers' Evan Belli. Oxy would quickly respond. Attacker Jarrod Norton (Newbury Park, CA) would be the first Tiger to score, with the assist by Daniel Cruz (São Paulo, Brazil). Goalkeeper Henry Grady (Willow Grove, PA) would come far out of the water to block a shot by Ryan Baumann. On center defense, Jasper Lee (South Pasadena, CA) had a big save to keep the score tied at one all at the end of the first period. Despite low scoring, the game picked up in intensity and got more physical in the second. Chapman's Everett Prussak would be the only one to score in the second period.
In the second half, Norton would open the scoring after getting set up by Cian Concannon (Mill Valley, CA). Chapman would maintain their lead in the third, but Shea Grosz (Lafayette, CA), assisted by Joseph Cox (Fresno, CA) would reduce the deficit to one. Although Chapman won all four sprints, Oxy had strong counters throughout the game.
The latter half of the fourth period would turn very interesting as Oxy would pull their goalkeeper to play seven on six. On the goalie switch, Noll would take over for Grady and play up in an attempt to even the score. Once Oxy lost possession of the ball, Chapman's keeper McNicholas would throw a lob shot down the pool into Oxy's empty cage and score. The Tigers continued a strong push to catch up to the Panthers. Norton would find the net again, with the assist going to Grosz. In the final minutes, Guillaume had a big steal from McNicholas and found the net, but it would be the final goal of the game. Chapman earned a hard-fought win, 9-7.
The Tigers were led by Norton, who had a total of three goals. Grady had 12 big saves, a save percentage of .600, beating out Chapman's keeper (.533), and one steal for the night.
Next Game: Oxy will play in two games over Homecoming weekend. First up is the University of La Verne at 11:00 am, followed by Westcliff University at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.
