Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
REDLANDS, Calif. – For the second straight year the Whittier College men's water polo team has found themselves in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Final against the Stags of Claremont-M-S as they rolled past the University of Redlands 12-6 in the semi-finals.
The Poets winning streak now stretches to 11 games as they improve to 22-12, 10-0 SCIAC, earning their 18th straight SCIAC victory.
Whittier will face off against the Stags of CMS who edged Chapman in the other semi-final 10-7. The rubber match will occur tomorrow, Sunday, November 23 beginning at 2:15 p.m. at the Thomson Aquatic Center.
The championship game between CMS and Whittier promises to be rife with great competition. The last time these two teams met, on November 7, Whittier fought back from being down 10-8 to earn a 12-11 victory in OT at the Lillian Slade Aquatic Center.
WC looked to come out strong against the Bulldogs Saturday looking to make an early statement after they narrowly edged UR in overtime on October 18 12-11 in the SCIAC opener.
The Poets jumped out to an early one-goal lead following a goal from Marko Zuric (Split, Croatia), but the Bulldogs grabbed a 2-1 advantage with goals from Michael Robinson and Mark Zikov. However, the Poets netted back-to-back goals from Zuric and Goran Mataic (Split, Croatia) to take a 3-2 lead into the second period.
The second-period scoring mirrored that of the first period, with the Poets registering three goals from Mataic, Kyle Catino (Lake Forest, Calif.), and Eoghan Foley (Sterling, VA). To take a slight 6-4 advantage after the end of the second stanza.
The Bulldogs struggled in the third period, as their lone goal from John Koning kept them alive but Poet freshman attacker Massimiliano Mirarchi (Rome, Italy) located the back of the net twice while senior center Mataic fired home one score that moved the score to 9-4.
Redlands came back though in the fourth down 9-5, scoring four goals to pull themselves within striking distance, but the Poets kept up their consistent offense with a three-goal showing of their own, resulting in the 12-9 final. Mataic finished off his solid performance with a pair of goals in the last frame.
Senior Ryan Brunansky (Poway, Calif.) again proved to be a rock in goal playing all 32 minutes totaling seven saves in the victory.
