Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier College Men's Water Polo team swept the competition at the Whittier Mini-Tournament Saturday as they cruised past La Verne and Occidental to improve to 6-4 on the young season.
With the sweep, Whittier wins their fourth straight contest and remains at No. 1 in the CWPA Division III polls and No. 20 in the Division I Varsity Polls.
The previous time these programs met, Whittier held on to win 16-14 over the Leopards and 11-9 over the Tigers during the Inland Empire Classic. This time around the Poets left little doubt using a balanced attack to roll away with the victories.
Game 1 (La Verne; W, 19-8)
Whittier jumped out in front quickly 5-0 at the conclusion of the first quarter with three goals from Marko Zuric (Split, Croatia), and goals from Massimiliano Mirarchi (Rome, Italy) and Julian Droetti (Irvine, Calif.).
Mirarchi would add another two to start off the second to move the score to 7-0 before the Leopards would finally get on the scoreboard at the 4:53 mark.
But the Purple & Gold would end the quarter on a 4-1 run to make the score 11-2 at the break.
Out of the half, Whittier continued with their dominance on both ends of the pool adding another eight goals, which included seven in the final frame. At the end of three the score was 12-3 in favor of WC but in the fourth the game was put out of reach despite La Verne adding five goals themselves.
Zuric finished the game with five goals, while Mirarchi had four.
Game 2 (Occidental; W, 13-5)
In the second matchup of the day, the Poets continued where they left off offensively. Goran Mataic (Split, Croatia) got things started before Mirarchi and Aidan Tol (Tustin, Calif.) finished the quarter with goals.
Leading 3-1, the Poets opened up the second quarter with five consecutive tallies led by Mataic who scored the first three followed by Zuric and Kyle Catino (Lake Forest, Calif.). Occidental managed to add two to finish off the quarter to trail 8-3 at the break but in the second half they would be held to just two goals, while Whittier would put the game out of reach with another five scores.
The Poets hit the road this Saturday and Sunday, September 27-28 as they take part in the Aggie Shootout hosted by UC Davis. There they will take on Division I opponents No. 14 Santa Clara, No. 4 UC Berkeley, and No. 11 UC Davis.
