ERIE, Pa. – McKendree men's water polo opened play here Saturday in the 2022 CWPA Division II Championship by suffering back-to-back setbacks to top-seeded Salem and Gannon University at Cathedral Prep's Hallman Aquatics Center.
 
The Bearcats opened the 2022 championships with a hard-fought 17-15 loss to Salem, before falling later in the day on Saturday, 13-12 to Gannon, who has won the CWPA Division II Championship the past four seasons.
 
With the two setbacks, McKendree falls to 2-16 overall the season and extends its losing skid to 13 straight matches.
 
SALEM 17, McKENDREE 15
In Saturday's first game against Salem (11-11 overall), McKendree outshot the Tigers, 39-31 and led 8-7 at half before Salem outscored the Bearcats, 10-7 in the second half to post the win.
 
The Bearcats offense was paced by six goals and two assists for eight points from fifth-year senior attacker Nico Rodriguez (Bogota, Colombia/Oviedo), while graduate student attacker Josh Carlson (New Lenox, Ill./Lincoln-Way West) had four goals and one assists for five points. Two other Bearcats had two goals in the game – sophomore attacker Jespyn Bishop (Brighton, Colo./Brighton) and fifth-year senior attacker Tony Sunagawa (Chino Hills, Calif./Chino Hills).
 
McKendree jumped in front 2-0 on goals from Sunagawa and Carlson and led 3-1 when Nikola Krstonosic scored a goal with 1:34 left in the opening period to cut McKendree's lead to 3-2.
 
After Ivan Zivojinovic helped Salem tie the game at 3-all, back-to-back goals by Rodriguez gave McK a 5-3 lead. The Tigers would then score three of the next four goals to tie the game at 6-all. Rodriguez would score two straight goals to give McK an 8-6 lead, before Zivojinovic scored with two seconds left to cut McKendree's halftime lead to 8-7.
 
Salem outscored the Bearcats, 5-3, in the third period to take 12-11 lead heading into the final period.
 
The Tigers opened the final period by scoring three straight goals to push out to a 15-11 lead, but the Bearcats used goals by Sunagawa, Bishop and Carlson to pull within 16-14 with 1:39 left in the game. Zivojinovic would score a goal with 1:01 left to take a 17-14 lead, before Carlson scored with 40 seconds left to cap the game's scoring.
 
Nikola Cvetkovic scored five goals and had an assist for six points, while Zivojinovic had four goals and one assist for five points. Krstonosic and Chad Rowley each had three goals in the win.
 
Junior goalkeeper Jimmy Cronin (Naperville, Ill./Metea Valley) played all 32 minutes in net and recorded four saves in the loss.
 
Julen Alonso played the entire game in goal for Salem and had 10 saves for the Tigers.
 
GANNON 13, McKENDREE 12
In the second game of the day on Saturday against the host school, Gannon (6-12), McKendree held a 38-34 edge in shots, but the Golden Knights outscored the Bearcats, 3-1, in the second period to help propel them to a 13-12 win.
 
Against Gannon, Carlson led the way offensively for the Bearcats with three goals, while Sunagawa, junior center defender Adam Serrano (Riverside, Calif./Poly) and junior Breno Tebet (Sao Paulo, Brazil/Golden West College) each scored two times and combined for three assists and nine points.
 
McKendree jumped in front 3-1 thanks to goals from Bishop, Tebet and Serrano, before Gannon scored three straight goals to take a 4-3 lead with 1:26 left in the opening period. The Bearcats used a goal from Tebet with 1:03 left in the period to tie the game at 4-all after the first period.
 
Gannon opened the second period by scoring the first three goals to take a 7-4 lead, before freshman center/utility player Cale Koester (New Lenox, Ill./Lincoln-Way Central) scored with no time left to cut Gannon's lead to 7-5 at the half.
 
Much like the second period, the Golden Knights opened the third period scoring three straight goals to take a 10-5 lead, but the Bearcats would rally to score four of the final five goals of the period to cut Gannon's lead to 11-9 after three periods.
 
Sunagawa and Serrano opened the fourth period with goals with 70 second of each other to tie the game at 11-all. The Golden Knights, though, broke the tie on a goal by Alexandros Kotskar and then pushed its lead to 13-11 on a goal by Vladimir Mickic with three minutes left. Carlson, though, would cut Gannon's lead to 13-12 after his goal with 1:04 left in the game.
 
Kotskar and Mickic each scored five goals in the win, while Drago Marjanovic added two goals and two assists for four points. Kotskar had eight points as along with his  five goals, he had three assists, while Ben Fribourg had one goal and three assists for four points.
 
Cronin played all 32 minutes in goal and recorded 13 saves, while Alvaro Marco played all 32 minutes in goal for Gannon and had 13 saves and three steals.
 
UP NEXT
The Bearcats complete the CWPA Division II Championships with an 8 a.m. ET game on Sunday, Oct. 23 against Mercyhurst University.