Photo By Toby Gassner
La Verne, CA — Occidental College, along with Pomona-Pitzer, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, and the University of La Verne, hosted 27 programs from across the country for the 2021 Gary Troyer Tournament. Over the two days of competition, a total of 49 water polo games were played. On Friday, the first day of competition, the Occidental men's water polo team headed out to the University of La Verne for their first two games of the tournament in Las Flores Pool. The Tigers started their day against Washington and Jefferson College and rounded out the day with a game against Fresno Pacific.
Game 1:
Oxy started the day strong against Washington and Jefferson College, winning the first period 8-2. At the half, the Tigers were up 12-3 and they carried the lead to the end of the game, finishing with an 18-7 victory over the Presidents.
The Tigers were led by sophomore attacker Nate Fisher (LaGrange, IL) who scored three goals during the course of the game. Fisher was followed by Shea Grosz, Aiden Cawley, Wilson Noll, and Christian Guillaume who each found the net two times. Overall, twelve Tigers were able to get past the Presidents' defense and contribute to their commanding lead, earning the team shot percentage of .692. Pushing the score up by one a piece was Tate Miller, Cian Concannon, Keegan Klein, Pete Buinauskas, Kellen Radtkey, Joseph Cox, and Dominic Rios.
Defending the Oxy goal was first year James Derrod (Chula Vista, CA) who expertly kept W&J efforts at bay with his five saves. Derrod registered a save percentage of .417.
W&J were led by Will Kitsch and Ryan Bannon who each scored two goals and combined they contributed four of the seven Presidents' goals.
Game 2:
Continuing in a similar manner as their first game of the day, the Oxy men outscored Fresno Pacific in the first period 7-1. The Sunbirds quickly regrouped and were even able to outscore the Tigers in the last period, but it was not enough to recover from their earlier deficit. The Tigers swam away with a 21-14 win.
Racking up four goals apiece were Shea Grosz (Lafayette, CA), Aiden Cawley (Chicago, IL), and Cian Concannon (Mill Valley, CA). All together, these three dominating forces were responsible for over half of the Tigers' goals against the Sunbirds. Overall, ten Tigers scored, with Keegan Klein and Jarrod Norton finding the net twice. The additional five Oxy goals were scored by Tate Miller, Christain Guillaume, Kellen Radtkey, Joseph Cox, and Oliver Wilkins, highlighting the importance of every member contributing to the team tally. Without their efforts, the match up would have been much tighter.
Back in the goal was Henry Grady with seven saves and a save percentage of .333.
The Sunbirds were led by Bodhi Bowden, who scored six goals in total.
The Tigers finished day one of the Gary Troyer Tournament with two wins.
