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.
