Los Angeles, CA — Before their match up with the Whittier Poets at De Mandel Aquatics Center this morning, the Occidental men's water polo team honored their seniors Tate Miller, Aiden Cawley, Oliver Wilkins and James Derrod for their academic and athletic achievements during their time in the Oxy water polo program.
All 4 seniors had great careers, with the three offensive players each tallying over 50 goals and 50 assists in their career, and Aiden Cawley scoring 123 goals in his time in an Oxy cap.
In the 2024 season, Miller has tallied 25 goals, 27 assists and 18 steals in 23 games played thus far. Cawley has scored 43 goals to go along with 23 assists and 19 steals in the 2024 campaign.
Wilkins has found the net 16 times and has found a teammate for a goal 18 times. Derrod has 113 saves on the season with a game high of 16 against Mt. San Antonio. He also has 28 steals on the year.
Once the players were in the pool, the game started slow for the Tigers who were down 2-0 after the 1st period of play. The Tigers got back in it when Ocean Pogorel scored two goals in the 2nd to tie the game at 2 with 6 and half minutes to go until halftime.
Quin Concannon and Danny Miller would also get on the board for the Tigers in the 2nd period, but Oxy would head into the break down 5-4 in an intense defensive battle. Travis Hughes opened the 3rd period by tying the game with a goal and would add another later on in the quarter.
The Tigers were still down one score heading into the 4th period, but Concannon put the TIgers up late by scoring back to back goals totaling his 4th of the game. Whittier would score the equalizer with a minute left, and the game would head into overtime to decide a winner.
Oliver Wilkins got Oxy on the board first in OT with a goal, but the Poets quickly responded to tie it up at 12. The game continued to intensify as the clock ticked down and Travis Hughes would draw a five meter late in OT and capitalize by putting the ball in the net to give Oxy a 13-12 lead.
The Poets would also draw a five meter penalty with 8 seconds left in the game and they would tie it up at 13 with the penalty goal. With the game still tied after two 3 minute OT periods, the game went to a golden goal final period.
The two teams' defensive intensity continued to pick up, with James Derrod making several beautiful saves to keep the score even in all OT periods. With about 40 seconds gone by in the sudden death OT period, the Poets were able to get through the Oxy defense to score the game winning goal.
Derrod totaled 12 saves in the game for Oxy, and Tate Miller had 2 steals. Aiden Cawley had 4 shots and a steal, and Oliver Wilkins had a huge go ahead goal in the 1st OT period.
Oxy's next game will come on the road in Thousand Oaks against the Cal Lutheran Kingsmen on November 13th at 4:00pm.
