Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
LA VERNE, Calif. – The Whittier College men's water polo team took two of three at the Inland Empire Classic Sunday as they dropped a tight 16-7 decision to No. 5 Long Beach State before cruising past La Verne 16-14 and Occidental 11-9.
Game 1 (No. 5 Long Beach State; L, 12-7)
Game 2 (La Verne; W, 16-14)
The match-up against La Verne was the first match-up between these programs this season, with the Leopards coming off big wins over Claremont-M-S and Pomona-Pitzer.
One of the higher scoring games this season, both teams combined for 30 goals with the Poets taking a 6-4 lead after the first quarter. They jumped out quickly 2-0 with back to back scores from Nicolas Beavers (Long Beach, Calif.) and Marko Zuric (Split, Croatia).
The Leos would quickly answer with two of their own before the Poets would use a 3-1 run with goals from Kyle Catino (Lake Forest, Calif.), Massimiliano Mirarchi (Rome, Italy), and Wedge Molthen (Buena Park, Calif.) to take a 5-3 lead.
The lead would be cut to one once again but the Poets' Austin Ringheim (Los Alamitos, Calif.) would tally his first goal of the game with five seconds to play.
The second quarter remained even with three goals apiece allowing Whittier to take a 9-7 lead into the break. La Verne would tie the game up twice in the third but the Poets would close out the frame with three consecutive tallies from Mirarchi, Zuric, and Catino that opened the game up 14-9.
Whittier would add the first goal in the fourth to extend the lead to six but La Verne would outscore WC 5-1 over the next six and a half minutes to pull within two before the final buzzer sounded. Mirarchi led all scorers with four goals.
Between the posts, senior Ryan Brunansky (Poway, Calif.) played one of his best games of the season totaling 15 saves in the victory.
Game 3 (Occidental; W, 11-9)
In the final game of the Classic the Poets faced off against the Tigers of Occidental College for the second time this season. The first time they matched up against each other, the Poets controlled every facet of the game en route to the 14-3 victory back on September 6.
This time around the game remained tight, with Head Coach Justin Pudwill playing a majority of his subs throughout.
Whittier opened up the scoring with 3:48 to play in the first from Zuric before adding the final two scores from Aidan Tol (Tustin, Calif.) and Roman Novak (Almaty, Kazakhstan) to put the Purple & Gold in front 3-1.
In the second the Poets would extend their lead 7-3 with four goals from Goran Mataic (Split, Croatia), Kurt Holzmuller (Brentwood, Calif.), Mirarchi, and Ringheim. But in the third, the Poets would get outscored 5-3 allowing Occidental to get back into the contest 10-8.
Whittier would open the fourth with a goal from Mirarchi but the Tigers would respond with a five meter to again pull within two, but that would be the last score from either team as Whittier would come away with their fourth victory on the season.
The Poets look forward to the Whittier Mini-Tournament this Saturday, September 20 when they host La Verne (10:15am), Occidental (12:45pm), and Caltech (1:30pm).
