Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
LA VERNE, Calif. – The Whittier College men's water polo team won their second straight SCIAC contest Wednesday afternoon as they fought off a late rally from the Leopards of the University of La Verne to win 13-11.
Whittier now improves their record to 7-11, 2-0 SCIAC and will seek their third straight SCIAC victory as they travel to take on the Bulldogs of the University of Redlands on Saturday, October 13 beginning at 11:00am.
The Purple & Gold opened up the first frame outscoring the Leopards 5-2 scoring two unanswered from Douglas Marriott and Goran Mataic before extending their lead to 4-1 after three scores from Marriott Justin Pratt, and Mataic but after back to back goals from Arturo Villalpando and Bryan Jimenez to open the second the Leopards only trailed by one.
But Whittier replied with three goals two coming off of man up situations to move their lead to 8-4 at the 2:46 mark. After both squads swapped goals in the final 1:46, Whittier still maintained the advantage at 9-6 going into the half.
Coming out of the break, La Verne opened with a quick goal within the first two minutes and then capitalized off of a man up situation to pull within one at 9-8 but the Poets would answer with two goals from Mataic and Kyle Catino to increase their lead to 11-8 to close out the third.
In the final period La Verne continued to play aggressively and managed to finish the game off on a 4-1 run but it wasn't enough to pull off the victory as Whittier held on for the 13-11 win.
In the win, senior goalie Ryan Rock finished with five saves.
