Pepperdine Cruises Past UC San Diego, 22-8

Malibu, Calif. Â After a disappointing loss to No. 5 UC Irvine last night, the Pepperdine men’s water polo recorded a season-high scoring victory over No. 14 UC San Diego (22-8).

Led by sophomore Clayton Snyder’s (Seal Beach, Calif. / Los Alamitos HS) impressive back handed first goal of the game and nine additional Wave scorers, UCSD faced a Pepperdine offense that never let up. Scoring eight goals in the first quarter and only allowing one goal by the Tritons, the Waves set the tone for the rest of the game.

“Last year we lost to UCSD in the finals of the San Diego Tournament, so it was kind of personal for me. We’ve been working on some things and getting use to our new roles and I think it’s finally coming together,” said Snyder. “This is the first time this season that we didn’t get caught up in how the other team was playing and we stayed focused on our own game.”

The Tritons scored four goals in the second quarter to close Pepperdine’s lead to 12-5. However, the Waves scored 10 goals in the second half to UCSD’s three. Michael Libutti was the leading scorer for UCSD with three goals, Chance Vermilyea and Steve Donohoe recorded two each.

Snyder was the offensive leader with a total of five goals, while junior Adam Hewko (Irvine, Calif. / Servite HS) and junior Matt MacDonell (Redwood City, Calif. / Bellarmine HS) score three apiece. Sophomore goalkeeper Travis Stachowski ( Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. / Foothill HS) had six saves.

“The team came off of a hard loss last night to UC Irvine,” said head coach Jack Kocur. “There were a lot of expectations and I’m really proud of they way they came out and played today. They didn’t lie down and die, they came out strong and executed their plays throughout the entire match.”

 

At the Pepperdine vs. Concordia game, the Waves established an early lead (3-0) with goals scored by junior Dorian Beaney (Lake Forest, Calif. / El Toro HS), freshman Travis Gough (Carlsbad, Calif. / Carlsbad HS) and sophomore Taylor Watson (Alamo, Calif. / Monte Vista HS) in the first quarter. Concordia responded with their first goal of the match scored by Jure Bellarmic. Bellarmic went on to score a total of five goals for Concordia. The score at the half was 3-2.

The second half of the match saw goals traded back and forth with Pepperdine freshman Andrew Milcovich (Walnut Creek, Calif. / De La Salle HS) recording back-to-back goals for the Waves in the third. The quarter ended with a 5-5 tie. Gough opened up the fourth quarter to score for Pepperdine (6-5), but Concordia responded one minute later with a goal by Mike Cobarubbias to tie the game (6-6). Freshman Blake Hubbell’s (Malibu, Calif. / Malibu HS) goal with 4:12 left in the game, gave the lead back to the Waves (7-6), until Bellarmic netted his fifth goal of the game to tie it up once again (7-7). With 3:26 remaining, sophomore Christian Flowers (Honolulu, Hawaii / Mid Pacific Institute) scored and forty seconds later freshman Alex Bergeson (Carlsbad, Calif. / Carlsbad HS) added a goal of his own to give the Waves a two point lead (9-7). Concordia answered with less than two minutes left when Kevin Rice scored the final goal of the game (9-8).

 

                                  1                2              3               4        Pepperdine vs. Concordia 9-8

PEPP                         3                0              2               4 --  9

CONCORDIA             0                 2              3               3 Â  8

 

PEPP GOALS: T. Gough (2), A. Milcovich (2), C. Flowers (1), A. Bergeson (1), B. Hubbell (1), D. Beaney (1), T. Watson (1) Â 9

 

CONCORDIA GOALS: J. Belamaric (5), R. Matosic (1), K. Rice (1),

 M. Cobarrubias (1) Â 8

 

SAVES: PEPP: J. Curley (6), McLain (5)

               CONCORDIA: Pocekaj (9)

 

                                1                    2              3                 4      Pepperdine vs. UCSD Â 22-8

PEPP                       8                    4              6                 4 -- 22

UCSD                      1                    4              1                  2 --  8

 

PEPP GOALS: C. Snyder (5), A. Hewko (3), M. MacDonell (3), G. Miller (2), A. Milcovich (2) J.P. MacDonell (2), Nick Corjon (2), M. Digges (1), D. Beaney (1), M. Lee (1) -- 22

 

UCSD GOALS:, M. Libutti (2), C. Vermilyea (2) S. Roberts (1), C. Williamson (1), J. Hunt (1), D. Garcia (1) -- 8

 

SAVES: PEPP: T. Stachowski (6)

                           C. Huffman (5)

                     

 

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