Los Angeles, CA — Men's water polo hosted the Austin College Kangaroos in their first game of a doubleheader at De Mandel Aquatics Center on Sunday morning.
After the teams battled for four minutes with neither team finding the back of the net, Travis Hughes drew a penalty shot and capitalized on the opportunity to give Oxy a 1-0 lead. The Tigers would not look back after that, scoring the first 8 goals of the game, with two coming from Jacob Carlson.
James Derrod played terrific goalie for Oxy in the first half, but the Kangaroos were able to tack on two goals right before the half to cut the lead down to 8-2 entering halftime. In the 3rd period Oxy would get those two goals right back thanks to Oliver Wilkins finding the net twice.
Kevin Castellanos would also get on the board twice for Oxy with two goals of his own, one coming in the 3fd period and the other in the 4th. Atticus Wahab-Holles and Quin Concanon got in on the scoring with a goal each in the 4th quarter as the Tigers wrapped up a 16-6 win over Austin College.
Wilkins was the key offensive player for Oxy in this one, finishing with 4 goals in the game. James Derrod has two assists on beautiful passes from goal leading Oxy players perfectly into scoring opportunities.
Lars Schubert was a great playmaker in this game as he collected 4 assists. The Tigers looked to keep their momentum going later today in a matchup with Westcliff University.
Oxy would do just that, getting off to a quick start thanks to two goals from Danny Miller, with both goals being set up by Tate Miller assists. The game was quickly 5-0 after Travis Hughes added two goals of his own and Jacob Carlson was also able to score on a shot that was again assisted by Miller.
After a Westcliff goal, Danny Miller scored his third goal of the game for a hat trick. The Warriors began to battle back and scored the next 6 goals in the game to take a 7-6 lead with 3:33 left in the 2nd period.
Max Stone tied the game up at 7 with a goal, but Westcliff jumped back out in front shortly after. WU added one more goal before the end of the half to take a 9-7 lead into the break. The Westcliff offense outscored the Tigers 7-4 in the 3rd period to lead 15-11 heading into the final period.
Oxy scored the first goal of the 4th quarter on a goal from Danny Miller, but the Warriors were responding with goals of their own each time the Tigers found the net. With 3:35 left in the game Aiden Cawley found the net with another assist from Tate Miller, cutting the Warrior lead down to 3 goals.
Zane Derrod scored two goals at the end of the game but Westcliff had extended their lead out to be able to hold on to the win by a score of 19-16. It was a closely contested game throughout 4 periods. Travis Hughes and Danny Miller each had 4 goals for the Tigers in the game.
Oxy's next game is slated for a matchup at Caltech on Saturday, September 28th at 7:00pm.
