LOS ANGELES – The Whittier College men's water polo team was stunned on Saturday morning as Occidental tallied the game winning goal with no time left in a 12-11 upset over the No. 4 Poets in the conference opener.

Whittier (9-11, 0-1 SCIAC) led 10-7 with 27 seconds left in the third quarter but let the Tigers cut the lead to two with a late goal at the end of the quarter.

Occidental battled back to tie the game at 10 with goals at 5:32 and 4:53 of the fourth frame and took its first lead of the contest at 11-10 with 3:53 left in regulation.  The Poets answered with just 18 seconds left to tie the score on Lincoln Haley's only goal of the contest.

However, the Tigers drew an ejection with one second left and capitalized on the extra-man opportunity with no time left on the clock.

Erick Gonzalez scored a team-high four goals which includes three in the first quarter. He scored his final goal of the afternoon at 2:14 of the third quarter to put WC up 8-7.

Rilesh Desai scored one goal but had three assists with four drawn ejections while Will Jackson also had four drawn ejections to go along with three goals and two assists.

Chad Evenrud made 15 saves in the loss.

The Poets led 6-4 at the intermission.

Whittier will try to get back on track on Wednesday as it travels to Claremont, Calif., to face No. 1 Pomona-Pitzer at 4 pm.