Los Angeles, CA — Oxy men's water polo hosted the defending Division III National Champion Claremont-M-S Stags on Wednesday night in the De Mandel Aquatics Center in a game that would go down to the wire. 

Both teams entered the game 1-0 in the SCIAC having won their first conference matchup of the year. The first half of the game Oxy took an early 3-1 lead with goals from Max Stone, Jacob Carlson, and Zane Derrod.

CMS scored the next 3 goals of the game to take a 4-3 lead into the end of the 1st period, but Oxy came out in the 2nd period and tied the game immediately with a goal from Danny Miller. The two teams were battling and began to trade goals, leading to multiple ties and lead changes in the period. 

Miller got on the board again for the Tigers just before halftime with an assist from Lars Schubert, tying the game at 7 heading into the break. Oxy would break the tie in the 3rd period on a powerplay opportunity with a goal from Schubert assisted by Travis Hughes. 

Quin Canconnan got in on the scoring for Oxy and made it a two goal lead with the Tigers up 9-7. The No. 1 ranked Stags would refuse to go away and would quickly answer each time the Tigers lead stretched to two goals. CMS knotted the score at 10 before the end of the 3rd period, but Kevin Castellanos scored for Oxy to end the period and grab a one goal advantage for Oxy heading into the final period. 

Travis Hughes scored two huge goals for Oxy in the 4th period that gave the Tigers a two goal advantage with 5:40 remaining in the game. Tate Miller would score again and bring the score to 14-12 with less than 5 minutes to play. 

CMS would rally back by scoring the next two goals of the game with the game-tying goal coming with less than three minutes to go as the clock ticked down nearing the end of the 4th period.

After a huge game-saving save from goalie Jack Schroeder, the Tigers had the ball with a chance to seal the game with a goal. The Tigers' were unable to score the goal and CMS took a timeout with 4 seconds on the clock. 

CMS brought their goalie out of the net to go for the win, but after a save by Jack Schroeder the Tigers got the ball back and with a second left on the clock Schroeder launched the ball the length of the pool and into the net for the game winning goal!

Oxy would win by a score of 15-14 to cap off an amazing back and forth game against a top-ranked opponent. The Tigers move to 2-0 in the SCIAC and will next play Connecticut College in the Gary Troyer tournament at De Mandel Aquatics Center.