LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The Whittier College men's water polo team despite fighting their way back from an eight point deficit was unable to pull out the win as they fell 15-14 to the Tigers of Occidental College.
Whittier now drops their record to 7-12 overall and 0-2 in SCIAC play, while Occidental now runs their record to 4-15 and 1-1 in SCIAC.
The previous time these two teams met, the Tigers were on the losing end of a 9-7 victory for the Poets. This time around the Tigers got their revenge and have evened the series with the Purple and Gold at 1-1.
Right away from the first whistle, Occidental was the aggressor as they got on the scoreboard first thanks to Joe Reynolds who fired a ball from the perimeter putting the Tigers up 1-0. But a few minutes later Erick Gonzalez then answered for the Poets as he tied up the game at 1-1 with one of his game high five goals.
But from there, Occidental would then put in three more goals within three minutes to take a 4-1 lead entering the second quarter. In the second quarter Occidental put in three consecutive goals to run their lead to 7-1 until Kyle Catino added one of his four goals of the game to cut the lead to five. Occidental would then add two more goals and with just under a minute remaining before the half Whittier's Keary Schlactus added one of his three goals of the game to help the Poets go into the half only down 9-3.
Coming out of the break, Occidental continued to be the aggressor as they converted on one of two power plays on the day to go up 10-3. The teams would trade goals in the final minutes of the quarter but the tigers still held onto the 13-7 entering the final quarter.
Whittier came out in the fourth and changed the momentum of the game and began controlling the tempo on both ends of the pool and after goals were swapped early in the quarter Whittier went on a 5-0 run in just under two minutes thanks to Carlos Panfilo and John Adams who helped cut the Oxy lead to 15-13 with just under three minutes to play.
Oxy then tightened up their defense and with just 30 seconds remaining the Poets got another goal but it was two late as the Tigers went on to preserve the 15-14 victory.
Whittier returns to the pool as they travel to Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday, October 22 to take on the Sagehens at 11am and then turning around to play the U.C.L.A Bruins at 1pm.
Box Score 1st 2nd 3rd 4th TOTAL
Occidental 4 5 4 2 15
Whittier 1 2 4 7 14
GOALS SCORED:
Occidental-Reynolds-4, Stabenfeldt-4, Whitmore-3, Coleman-2, Akiyama-1, McDermott-1
Whittier-Gonzales-5, Katino-4, Schlactus-3, Panfilo-1, Adams-1
SAVES:
Occidental-Reuther-14
Whittier-Evenrud-1, Maloney-1
