Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
Article by: Carsen West
LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The Whittier College's men's water polo team returned in full force Saturday morning, pummeling the Tigers of Occidental College for an easy Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory after their surprising loss to Cal Lutheran University a couple days earlier.
The morning matchup was Occidental's third straight loss in SCIAC play, while bringing the Poets back up to a 3-1 record.
Coming out of the upset of their previous game, Whittier met their opposition with an unmatchable offensive strength and established a lead from the start of the game that the Tigers would be unable to match.
Wedge Molthen (Buena Park, Calif.) put up the first goal of the game with a powerful shot from the two meter, setting the Poets off on a five-goal run that would lead to their dominance of the first quarter. After pulling a quick steal, Goran Mataic (Split, Croatia) made a pass to Marko Zuric (Split, Croatia) unguarded on the far side of the pool, who put the ball away in a shot too fast for the Tiger's goalie. An exclusion against the Poets in the shallow side of the pool yielded Occidental their only goal of the quarter, though Molthen earned a 6-on-5 for Whittier in the next possession that Nicholas Beavers (Long Beach, Calif.) capitalized on with an easy near-side shot.
At the 2:02 mark, after a missed man-up opportunity, an attempted steal for the Occidental goalie led to a fourth goal for the Poets, while Kyle Catino (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) took another shot on the counter to finish the quarter out with Whittier up 5-1.
Filip Delic (Split, Croatia) opened up the second quarter with an outside bar-in to answer Occidental's conversion of a man-up opportunity in the previous possession, setting the Poets on a three-goal streak that would go unbroken for the rest of the first half. The next goal would come from Mataic on the drive, while Molthen at the two-meter position would once again prove too much for the Tigers, giving Whittier a 8-3 lead to start the third quarter.
Within the first minute of the second half, a man-up situation earned by Beavers would allow him an opportunity to put away his second goal of the game with a near side skip. Although Occidental managed to convert a 6-on-5 possession after Delic and Beavers were both majored with three exclusions each, Whittier would come with a second strong offensive push to put up five unanswered goals to finish out the quarter.
A second earned ejection for Molthen allowed Zuric to once again find the back of the cage, before another attempted and failed block by the Tiger's goalie on a shot by freshmen Julian Droetti (Irvine, Calif.). Two more goals came from an outside-five foul for Eoghan Foley (Sterling, VA.), and a catch-and-shoot outside shot for Mataic. Closing out the third quarter, Roman Novak (Almaty, Kazakhstan) put in a tricky pass to sophomore Douglas Marriott (Hacienda Heights, Calif.) at the two-meter, who put away a back handed shot to give the Poets an impressive 14-5 lead.
A defensive stalemate plagued both teams in the final quarter of play, with a number of offensive fouls and turn overs leaving the scoreboard untouched for the first three minutes. Mataic finally broke the dry run with a strong high-corner shot after an outside-five foul, followed quickly by a shot from freshman John Halet (Foster City, Calif.), that would put Whittier up to a 16-9 victory despite a three goal run by the Tigers to finish the game.
On Wednesday, October 30th, the Poets return to play at home in the Lillian Slade Aquatics Center, taking on the Pomona Pitzer Sagehens beginning at 7:00pm.
