Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
WHITTIER, Calif. – Jump starting Whittier Weekend this past Saturday, the Whittier College men's water polo team edged out the Bulldogs of the University of Redlands 8-7 to remain unbeaten in Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play.
The previous time these two teams met up was earlier in the year during the Lancer Invitational where the Bulldogs emerged victorious 9-5. But this time around the Purple & Gold used a strong defensive stand and an early 4-0 run covering 13 minutes that propelled them to the one goal victory.
Whittier got on the board late in the first quarter with 49 seconds to play from Kyle Catino (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) that would be the lone goal scored from either team.
Then in the second the Poets continued where they left off adding three unanswered covering a five minute span, while capitalizing off of one exclusion putting them in front 4-0. Goals Came from Goran Mataic (Split, Croatia), Justin Pratt (Manhattan Beach, Calif.), and Marko Zuric (Split, Croatia).
In the final minutes of the quarter Redlands managed to tally a couple of goals to stop the Poet run but after a Mataic goal at the 2:05 mark WC was able to take a 5-2 lead into the break.
Out of the half, Redlands made a comeback evening the game up at 6-6 after an early 4-1 run but at the end of the frame Whittier managed to once again pull in front thanks to Roman Novak (Almaty, Kazakhstan) who added a late goal with 1:41 to play.
In the fourth and final quarter the Poets struck first to go up 8-6 with a goal from Novak and after a goal from UR with 2:18 to play to pull within one Whittier cracked down on the defensive side of the ball, while grabbing two more man up opportunities helping them come away with the one goal victory and their 12th win of the season.
Whittier (12-11, 2-0 SCIAC) returns to the pool for two road contests this week first on Wednesday, October 23 against Cal Lutheran beginning at 4:00pm before traveling into Los Angeles to take on Occidental on Saturday, October 26 beginning at 11:00am.
