O'FALLON, Ill. - McKendree University Men's Water Polo opened the home portion of its 2021 schedule here Saturday morning by posting a 14-6 win over Salem University in a Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference-West Division game at the Metro Rec Plex Pool.

With the win, McKendree improves to 5-6 overall and 2-0 in the MAWPC-West, while Salem falls to 4-9 overall and 2-1 in the league. 

In the win, four Bearcats scored multiple goals as senior utilty player Matthew Haygood (Chino Hills, Calif./Chino Hills) led the way with four goals, while senior attacker Josh Carlson (New Lenox, Ill./Lincoln Way West) and graduate student utility player Uros Pelemis (Belgrade, Serbia/Fresno Pacific) each had three goals in the win and fifth-year senior defender Pedro Osorio (San Bernardino, Calif./Riverside City College) had two goals. 

Pelemis got the scoring started a litte less than three minutes into the game to give McKendree an early 1-0 lead and Osorio made it 2-0 lead about two minutes later in the first period.

Haygood got into the scoring column with 11 seconds left in the first period to give the Bearcats a 3-0 lead after the opening eight minutes.

Carlson made it 4-0 just 40 seconds into the second period and Haygood added his second goal just 30 seconds after Carlson's first goal to make it 5-0 in favor of the Bearcats just 70 seconds into the second period. 

Salem's Ivan Zivojinovic would score the first goal of the game for the Tigers just three minutes into the second period to drop McK's lead to 5-1. 

The Bearcats, who led 5-1 at the half, opened the third period with goals by Pelemis and Haygood within the first 54 seconds of the period to push the Bearcats lead to 7-1. 

After Salem stopped the Bearcats run with a goal at the 5:42 mark, McKendree would score four of the next six goals to take a 10-4 lead into the fourth period. During the run, Carlson, Pelemis, Haygood and freshman attacker Jespyn Bishop (Brighton, Colo./Brighton). 

The Bearcats lead grew 11-4 just 25 seconds into the fourth period following Osorio's second goal of the game. Graduate student utility player Michael Rojas (Cali, Colombia/San Joaquin Parroquial) added a goal at the 3:40 mark to give McK a 12-4 lead. 

Carlson and freshman attacker Schuyler Cramer (Thornton, Colo./Horizon) added goals for the Bearcats in the final two minutes of the game to cap the scoring. 

Zivojinovic scored two of Salem's six goals in the loss. 

Fifth-year senior goalkeeper Ori Scanlon (Orlando, Fla./Olympia) played all 32 minutes in goal and allowed six goals and made nine saves, including four saves in the first period.

Goncalo Silva played the whole game in goal for Salem as he allowed 14 goals and made seven saves. 

The Bearcats will continue play on its weekend homestand on Saturday, Oct. 9 as they face Augustana College in a 12 p.m. game and then will conclude play with a 7 p.m. game against Gannon (Pa.) University.