Redlands Men’s Water Polo provides No. 1 Pomona-Pitzer with scare

Photo credit: Rachel Roche
Photo credit: Rachel Roche
Posted: Oct 20, 2021

REDLANDS, Calif. – The University of Redlands Men's Water Polo team provided Pomona-Pitzer, the top ranked team in Division III a scare Wednesday night as they fell 12-9 at the Thompson Aquatic Center.

The Maroon and Grey who came into the match-up winning two of their last four drop now to 5-17, 2-6 SCIAC.

It was a slow start to the game for the Bulldogs who were outscored 4-1 in the opening period.  They were able to tie things up at 1-1 early on thanks to a Drake Moody (Camarillo, CA) connection, but saw PP score three unanswered to close out the quarter.  Moody got the scoring started in the 2nd period finding the back of the cage off an assist from Michael Maher (Fremont, CA) at the 5:33 mark.  He then answered again less than a minute later this time converting a 6-on-5 getting fed inside set by Ethan Beaty (Denver, CO).

Then with 1:25 to play Bradley Clinton (Cypress, CA) got into the mix adding another powerplay goal for UR as they went into the half trailing 8-4.  Both teams added three goals in the 3rd period to keep the deficit at four.  First year Ron Gvishi got the scoring started a minute in and Moody finished things off with back-to-back tallies that moved the score to 11-7. 

Pomona-Pitzer decided to put their second string in to start the fourth and that proved a bad idea as Redlands jumped all over them with Tor Cole (Malibu, CA) and Gvishi outscoring PP 2-1.  But the spark wasn't enough as Redlands would fall by three. 

Moody finished with five goals on the game with four steals.  Gvishi added two tallies, Spencer Clinton (Cypress, CA) with two dimes and three steals and Cole picked up a goal and an assist.

Between the posts Jason Gates (San Jose, CA) got the start and played 24:00 minutes picking up five saves.  Brandon Khalil (Bakersfield, CA) took over in the 4th and added another two.            

The Bulldogs took 34 shots on the game, was 3-for-7 on power plays, shot .265 and was just 1-for-3 on five-meters.       

Redlands returns to the pool this Saturday, October 23 during Homecoming when they host Cal Lutheran University beginning at 11:00am.