WHITTIER, Calif. (Sept. 13, 2025) – The Whittier College men's water polo team capped off a busy week with a busier weekend – playing three Saturday games against formidable junior college foes Cypress College, Mt. San Antonio College, and Grossmont College.
The Poets were able to win all three games, but not without overcoming a little adversity along the way.
Game 1: Whittier 14, Cypress College 8
Whittier sought to open the day on a high note against Cypress, and did so by winning a physical game thanks to sound defense throughout the game's duration. The Poets' key players stood tall in front of starting goalkeeper
Lorenzo Angelucci (Pescara, Italy / Serie B), who dominated with seven saves against just three goals allowed in the first half. Over that stretch, the Poets outscored the Chargers, 8-3, showing traits of an elite defensive team for Division III with strong effort meeting great positioning.
Offensively, it took time for the Poets to find a groove, but once they did, they had little trouble banking impressive goals throughout the 32-minute game. The big offensive producers proved to be centers
Jordan Northcutt and
Noah Bigara (Cape Town, South Africa / Pinnacle Schools), each of whom came away with three goals. However, the bulk of the offense ran through sophomore
Zander Montoya (La Verne, Calif. / Damien), who assisted on three goals while scoring two, including the first one of the game on a successful five-meter penalty attempt. Classmate
Ko Kusachi (Okayama, Japan / Damien) played a similar offensive role, finding his teammates on two goals while scoring his own goal at the end of the third period.
When the game rolled over into the second half, the Poets continued to win with stout defense and kept the Chargers on the end of their jab all the way to regulation. Transfer goalkeeper
Jose Silva Zito (São Paulo, Brazil / Escola Viva / Golden West College) relieved Angelucci at halftime and took his team over the finish line by making five stops.
Game 2: Whittier 16, Mt. SAC 10
In the second game of Saturday's tri-match, Whittier had to contend with an unbeaten Mt. SAC squad that also proved to be the toughest team of the day. The Mounties' scoring depth gave the Poets another type of puzzle to solve defensively, and Whittier had to overcome an impressive Mt. SAC run in the third quarter in order to come away victorious. However, Whittier outscored Mt. SAC 6-2 over the final quarter to take the Mounties out of the game late.
Of those six fourth-quarter goals, four belonged to Bigara, who got involved on five-meter penalty opportunities and on the powerplay. The 2024 SCIAC Newcomer of the Year finished the game with five tallies, but more importantly showed he can be an effective closer in the configuration of the Poets' squad. The Poets' depth was also on full display, showing an ability to gel regardless of the which players were in the lineup at a given time. As a result, the Poets' nine assists went between eight different players, while the game also saw seven different goal scorers besides Bigara. Players to score multiple times included Montoya, senior transfer
Jaime Ariste (Madrid, Spain / South Eugene / Westcliff University | CIS Endicott International), and junior transfer Northcutt.
Game 3: Whittier 25, Grossmont College 13
The final game of the day saw Head Coach
Preslav Djippov test the length of his bench with a host of different players taking center stage. No matter who was in the pool, Whittier's offense enjoyed its best game of the afternoon with a whopping 25 goals. The top beneficiary was junior center
Pedro Carvalho (São Paulo, Brazil / Colegio Dantes Alighieri / Golden West College). The Brazilian scored five times in the final game of the day, beating the opposing keeper on multiple occasions with some incredible touch and finesse from close range.
Whittier's star players also enjoyed their share of success. Bigara scored three times, while Montoya contributed four goals and three assists, but they were far from the only significant Whittier performers. Junior
Louis Grandi (Marseille, France / St. Joseph / Westcliff University | Riverside City College) scored twice while assisting on four goals, and junior
Dylan Zeledon (Apopka, Fla. / Apopka) scored twice as one of nine different Whittier players with multiple goals.
While Angelucci and Zito logged the lion's share of the goalkeeping minutes on Saturday, the Grossmont game belonged to second understudy
Tomas Franco (Commerce, Calif. / La Serna). The freshman responded well to his first full game in the Slade Aquatics Center, stopping three shots from the Gryphons with a constantly shuffling lineup of players in front of him.
Coach Djippov and the Poets will return to the pool on Friday, Sept. 19 when they host Fresno Pacific University for a 5 p.m. game.
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