MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The McKendree men's water polo team opened up play here Saturday at the MAWPC Conference Crossover weekend at the Mylan Park Aquatic Center.
On Saturday's first day of the event, the Bearcats suffered a 25-3 setback to No. 18 Fordham University, before suffering a 16-9 loss to Wagner.
With the two setbacks, the Bearcats fall to 2-13 overall and 0-6 in the MAWPC.
McKendree will conclude the weekend's action with an 11:40 a.m. ET game against Navy.
FORDHAM 25, McKENDREE 3
In the first game of the day against the nationally ranked Rams, the Bearcats struggled to score as they held to a season low in points as they tallied a season low three goals.
Fordham jumped out to a 5-0 lead after the opening period, before scoring 10 goals in the second period to take a 15-1 lead at the half. In the second half, the Rams outscored the Bearcat, 10-2 with both of McKendree's goals coming in the final period.
McKendree's goals were scored by fifth year senior center
Tristen Clue (Chino Hills, Calif./Chino Hillls), freshman center/utility player
Cale Koester (New Lenox, Ill./Lincoln-Way Central) and sophomore
Alex Napawan (Chesterfield, Mo./Parkway Central).
In addition to the goals, senior center defender
Connor Pulido (Chicago Ridge, Ill./Richards) had two of McK's 10 exclusions. In addition to Pulido, junior center defender
Adam Serrano (Riverside, Calif./Poly) also had two.
Junior goalkeeper
Jimmy Cronin played all 32 minutes in the game in the net for the Bearcats.
Fordham (11-6 overall, 5-0 MAWPC) got hat tricks from Nacho Ariste and George Papanikolaou as they both recorded three goals and two assists. Paul Pittion and Mark Katsey also had three goals and an assist each.
WAGNER 16, McKENDREE 9
Against Wagner, the Bearcats struggled early in the game as Wagner led 7-2 after the first period. In the second period, Wagner outscored the Bearcats 6-1 to take a 13-3 halftime lead.
In the second half, the Bearcats would mount a comeback as they outscored the Seahawks, 6-3, to cut Wagner's deficit to seven goals.
Saturday's game was the second between the two schools this season as Wagner earned a 14-9 win at the Bucknell Invitational on Sept. 17.
Eight different Bearcats scored in the game as fifth-year senior attacker
Nico Rodriguez (Bogota, Colombia/Oviedo) scored two goals, both of which came in the fourth period.
The other goals came from sophomore attacker Schulyer Cramer (Thornton, Colo./Horizon), sophomore attacker
Jespyn Bishop (Brighton, Colo./Brighton), Serrano, Pulido, Clue and freshman attacker
Justice Lamboy (Santee, Calif./West Hills).
Cronin played all 32 minutes in goal for the Bearcats as he recorded 15 saves in the loss.
Wagner (7-10 overall, 3-4 MAWPC) got three goals each from Oliver Fodor, Laszlo Strasser and Mattia Bognolo.
Adam Wuthrich and Matthew Sherry each played a half in goal for the Seahawks as Wuthrich had six saves in the opening half and Sherry added five saves in the second half.
