Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier College Men's Water Polo team kept their conference winning streak intact at five games Wednesday evening as they edged Chapman University 11-9 at the Lillian Slade Aquatic Center.
The Purple & Gold who have now won five of their last six move to 17-11, 6-1 SCIAC with their final regular season match-up set to occur this Saturday, November 12 against Occidental College at 7:00pm.
Massimiliano Mirarchi (Rome, Italy) got the scoring started adding a man-up goal on the Poets first possession. Chapman would answer with back to back strikes to take their first lead of the contest but that lead would be short-lived as Tyler Fields (Norwalk, Calif.), Mirarchi, and Hunter Pelletier (Miami, FL) would connect on back to back to back goals that moved the score to 4-2.
With under a minute to play the Panthers would pull within two capitalizing on a man-up goal but again WC would respond at the :25 second mark as Mirarchi would connect with his third of the frame that extended the lead back to two.
Chapman would outscore Whittier 2-1 to get things started in the second quarter that pulled them within one. Mirarchi would put the Poets back up by two soon after but with 2:25 to play Chapman would again scrap to cut the deficit to one again.
CU answered on their first two possessions out of the break that gave them a one goal lead at 8-7. Marko Monic (Zagreb, Croatia) would connect at the 4:07 mark that evened things up and Mirarchi would again come up big drawing a 5-meter penalty with under :10 seconds to play that would put WC on top 9-8 heading into the final eight minutes.
It was back and forth in the fourth quarter with neither team connecting until Mirarchi would put the Poets up by two with a man-up goal at the 4:50 mark. He would then come down again and would put the game out of reach with his seventh goal of the game that extended the lead to three at 11-8 and despite Chapman getting one last goal, it wouldn't be enough as Whittier would hold on for the two goal victory.
Mirarchi finished with a game high seven goals, while freshman Murat Ersoz (Istanbul, Turkey) totaled five saves in the win.
