Malibu, Calif. – For the first time since 2005, the Pepperdine men's water polo team beat USC at
Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool 13-12.
Mate Toth had four goals for the Waves and
Chris Dilworth scored a hat trick.
The Waves (16-7) fell behind in the first quarter to the Trojans (9-4), but made up the difference in the third and fourth quarters to come away with the victory.
GAME RECAP
The Trojans opened the game hot, scoring the first three goals. Toth (Balatonalmadi, Hungary/Szilagyi Erzsebet Boarding School) got the Waves lone goal in the first with just a minute on the clock as the Waves trailed 3-1 after the first eight minutes of play.
In the second, the teams traded goals the entire period. Toth got his second and third goals of the game, and was joined in the scoring by
Chris Dilworth (Thousand Oaks, Calif./Thousand Oaks HS) and
Marko Asic (Laguna Niguel, Calif./Dana Hills HS). The Trojans scored twice in the period to take a 7-5 lead into the half.
The Waves' defense held the Trojans to just a single goal in the third, as Toth scored his fourth goal of the match.
Curtis Jarvis (Huntington Beach, Calif./Huntington Beach HS) and
Sean Thomas (Covina, Calif./Loyola HS) scored to end the period tied at 8.
The final quarter started off great for the Waves as Dilworth completed his hat trick with two more goals. After a goal from USC, Asic scored his second of the day.
Balazs Kosa (Budapest, Hungary/Csik Ferenc Altalanos Iskola es Gimnazium) then scored twice in a row with just 3:14 remaining in the game after the second to go up 13-10. The Trojans scored two goals, with the last coming with just 10 seconds left in the game, but could not complete the comeback as the Waves secured their seventh-straight victory.
STATS
SCORING: PEPP—1—4—3—5—13 ; USC—3—4—1—4—12
GOALS: PEPP— Toth (4), Dilworth (3), Asic (2), Kosa (2), Jarvis, Thomas ;
USC— Daube (4), Ehrhardt (3), Dasic (2), Maier, Sturtevant, Wyatt
SAVES: PEPP— McKenney (5), JC Marco (2) ;
USC— Porter (13)
QUOTABLE
UP NEXT
The Waves' tough schedule continues next week as they head up North to take on Pacific in a Golden Coast Conference matchup on Saturday before heading to Stanford to take on the Cardinal on Sunday.
