Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
LA VERNE, Calif. – The third time isn't the charm as the Whittier College Men's water Polo team suffered their third loss of the season to the Stags of Claremont-M-S as they fell 12-11 in overtime seeing their quest for a third consecutive SCIAC Championship Title come to an close at Las Flores Pool.
The decisive goal that gave the Stags the victory came in the final seconds of the first overtime session when Peter Tilton fired off a mid-pool shot just before time expired, which found the top right corner of the net, just over the outstretched hand of Poet goalie Oliver Bineth (Budapest, Hungary).
It only proved right as the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds would go at it during the finale in front of a capacity crowd. Whittier was 0-2 the previous two times against the Stags this season with both losses coming by one goal but the Poets have owned the last two SCIAC Championship Titles.
It was a back and forth battle throughout with neither team taking a lead more than a goal in the early stages. Senior Austin Ringheim (Los Alamitos, Calif.) added the first goal for the Purple & Gold as the game remained tied after the first eight minutes. The offense came alive in the second with both teams combining for eight goals, which included a pair from Mihailo Vuja (Belgrade, Serbia) that helped move the game into a tie 5-5 at the break.
The third quarter saw a defensive stand on both ends with both teams adding two goals apiece with sophomore Massimiliano Mirarchi (Rome, Italy) adding his first strikes of the contest. With the game deadlocked at 7-7, Whittier managed to pull out in front with a two goal cushion 9-7 early in the fourth with back to back connections from Mirarchi and Justin Pratt (Manhattan Beach, Calif.). But that lead wouldn't hold as the Stags would rattle off three unanswered in the final three minutes, which included two from Alex Waggoner with 23 seconds left on the clock that gave CMS a 10-9 lead.
But Whittier didn't back down, after a quick timeout Massi worked his way behind the back line with five seconds left on the clock drawing a five-meter and Marino Fatovic (Dubrovnik, Croatia) stepped up to bury the equalizer forcing the game into OT.
Tanner Cullen scored the first goal of OT 44 seconds in that again put CMS in front but the Poets would counter with Fatovic again tying things up with another five-meter that leveled the match at 11-11. Soon after with a second OT session looming CMS' Tilton would get the ball at mid-pool following a quick Whittier foul and would heave it with just a couple seconds left on the clock that found the back of the goal, which proved to be the eventual game winner.
Bineth played all 38 minutes totaling eight saves, while Mirarchi and Fatovic had three goals apiece.
Whittier finishes the 2015 season in 2nd Place in the final SCIAC Standings with a 19-12, 8-3 SCIAC record.
The win gave CMS the program's 26th conference championship (its first since 2012) and the SCIAC's automatic bid into the National Collegiate Men's Water Polo Championship. It is the first undefeated conference season for the Stags since 1997.
