Box Score Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier College Men's Water Polo team opened up Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) play Saturday with their home opener as they cruised past the California Institute of Technology 16-3 at the Lillian Slade Aquatics Center.
The Purple & Gold end their three game losing skid as they improve to 3-7, 1-0 SCIAC.
Caltech opened up the scoring in the opening frame forcing a turnover and going ahead on their first possession with an even strike. But they wouldn't find the back of the goal until the 6:18 mark in the 3rd quarter as Whittier tightened the screws on the defensive end, while tallying eight goals in a row to go on top.
Ricardo Reyes Jr. (Commerce, Calif.) started the scoring capitalizing on a man-up opportunity and then added another two minutes later. Other scorers during the run included Marc-Andre Roy (Montreal, Canada), Emilio Maldonado (Chula Vista, Calif.), Eric Borunda (Whittier, Calif.), Kyle Aguilar (Corona, Calif.), and Hans Zdolsek (Linkoping, Sweden).
WC outscored Caltech 4-1 over the first eight minutes and then shut them out in the second, while tacking on another two to go into the half up 6-1. In the 3rd, Zdolsek added the first two connections to extend the lead keeping the run intact but seconds later Caltech would add their second of the game coming on a power-play goal. This cut the lead to six but that's as close as Caltech would get as Zdolsek, Nick Hyden (Melbourne, Australia), Reyes Jr., and Chad Portugal (La Habra Heights, Calif.) would add four consecutive tallies to move the score to 12-3.
Over the final eight minutes it was all Whittier outscoring CIT 4-0 putting the game out of reach. During that push Andrew Valencia (La Mirada, Calif.), Borunda, Portugal, and Malcolm Niskey (El Cajon, Calif.) would find the back of the net.
All three goalies played with Murat Ersoz (Istanbul, Turkey) earning the win with six saves in the start. Whittier outshot Caltech 34-21 on the game and was 3-for-7 on power-plays.
Whittier hits the road for two SCIAC contests this week taking on La Verne (Wed. – 26th) and Claremont-M-S (Sat. – 29th) to wrap up September competition.
