WHITTIER, Calif. (Oct 8, 2022)- Three days after dropping a heartbreaking to Occidental in the final second, the Whittier men's water polo team fell again in devastating fashion, losing 14-13 to the CMS Stags in a sudden-death triple-overtime.

The first opened up with CMS taking an early lead, but the Poets wanted to show their fight. Their star attacker Ricky Reyes Jr., quickly tied the game up at 1. Whittier would showcase its strong defense the rest of the quarter and did not allow another Stags goal. Ethan Saenz, however, was not done scoring for the Poets and gave them a 2-1 advantage late in the first. 

As the second opened, Whittier had a 2-1 lead. CMS took little time tying this game at 2, then Whittier went on a strong run. The scoring was started off with a goal by Ben Ramans, scoring after battling with the Stags at the net. The Poets then scored another five unanswered goals, including three more from Reyes to take an 8-2 lead. As the time clicked off the clock in the half, CMS was able to score one final goal to make the score 8-3 going into the half. 

As the third began the Poets had control of the game, but the Stags were ready to make a comeback. CMS scored 2 fast goals bringing the score to 8-5. Patrick Seelhorst was not ready to give up the lead and fired a fancy shot right by the goalie for his second goal of the day. CMS would end up getting one more shot past Whittier goalie Pierre-Louis Pinchaud as the third ended with the Poets up 9-6.

When the fourth started, it looked as if Whittier had control of this game, but CMS was not ready to give up. The Stags would open up the third with three straight goals and tie the game at 9. Then with one minute left on the clock, Reyes Jr. gave the Poets back the lead. As the time started to wind down on the clock, the Poets looked like they had this game locked up, but then the unthinkable took place. For the second straight game, Whittier allowed a critical goal in the final second of regulation, as CMS netted the game-tying goal. And so, the game was headed to overtime, tied at 11. 

This was a nightmare scenario for the Poets who were reliving their tough loss from Wednesday but not ready to roll over. As overtime went on, both teams were playing great defense and neither was allowing the other to get a shot on goal. Eventually, as the time hit zero and the period was over, the game was still tied at 13 thanks to goals by Tommy Baier and Kaan Hamurculu. 

This match would go into sudden death. Whichever team scored the next goal would be the winner. This sudden-death period ended up being a short one as Whittier got beat down the pool, allowing the Stags to score the walk-off goal. 

The loss brings Whittier's conference record to 1-3 now. Its next chance to get back on track comes next Wednesday the 12th against a tough Pomona-Pitzer opponent in another SCIAC matchup. 

Photo: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

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