THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Late goals at the end of quarters plagued the Whittier College men's water polo team as it dropped its sixth straight game, 10-7, to Cal Lutheran on Wednesday afternoon at the Samuelson Aquatics Center.

The Kingsmen (11-11, 5-1 SCIAC) capitalized on their opportunities and scored four of their 10 goals with under a minute left in the quarters.

Cameron Rehm cut the Whittier (10-16, 1-5 SCIAC) deficit to 2-1 with a goal at the 1:55 mark of the first quarter but Cal Lutheran cashed in with just eight ticks left to take a 3-1 lead into the second frame.

It didn't take long for Whittier to answer as Wes Paulson scored one of his two goals at the 6:12 mark of the second stanza to cut the debt to 3-2. Nearly three minutes later the Kingsmen pushed their lead to 4-2 and with 10 seconds left before the intermission they added their second goal of the quarter.

Rilesh Desai started the second half scoring at the 4:29 mark of the third but CLU answered with a 3-0 run capped by a goal with 55 seconds left in the quarter.

The Poets responded to the late Kingsmen goal with Paulson's second of the night. The junior's goal came with 39 seconds left and made the score 8-4.

Desai tried to start a Poet comeback with back-to-back goals to open the fourth. He scored at 7:05 and 5:50 and Will Jackson tallied a 5-meter goal to pull the Poets within one at 8-7 with 4:54 left in regulation.

Jackson 5-meter was drawn by Desai.

However, that would prove to be as close as Whittier would get. Cal Lutheran added insurance goals at 3:31 and with 10 seconds left en route to the three-goal win.

Paulson, Jackson and Rehm all had two steals in the loss. Jackson added a team-high three assists and Chad Evenrud made 15 saves.

The Poets will look to rebound on Saturday morning is they face Caltech at 11 am. Whittier will also face USC at 6 pm.