AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. - The men's water polo team dropped a pair of games on day two of the Rare Air Invitational to DIII No.5 Whittier College and California University, Fullerton on Sunday, September 7th.
GAME ONE vs. Whittier
BOX SCORE
Score: McKendree University 12, Whittier College 16
Record: Bearcats 1-2, 0-0 WWPA | Poets 3-0, 0-0 SCIAC
HOW IT HAPPENED
It took a while for the Bearcats to get momentum within the first quarter of play to begin day two of the invitational, with junior center defender Yannick Robertson (St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago) getting the only goal within the first eight minutes. Down by three to start the second period of play, Robertson, along with freshmen attackers Jayden Del Campo (Winnipeg, Canada) and Alexandros Prokopis (Palaio Faliro, Greece), sparked a 3-0 run to take their first lead of the game at 4-3.
Shortly after McKendree's run, the Poets enacted a 3-0 spurt themselves to put them back up ahead, but a powerplay goal from junior attacker Armand Le Goff (Reims, France) and two straight Bearcat scores from sophomore utility Joshua Gibson (Nassau, Bahamas) tied the match up at seven a-piece. A man-up goal by Whittier resulted put them back up by one, as Prokopis and senior attacker Quinten Gallagher (St. Louis, Mo.) retook the lead for McKendree 9-8 with under for minutes to play in period number three.
Whittier established the turning point for the game with a 5-0 run leading midway through the final quarter. Gallagher and Robertson slung in one and two goals respectively in hopes to catch up with the poets down the final stretch, but would ultimately come up short in reach, falling 12-16 against the fifth-ranked team in all of NCAA Division III.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
• Robertson led the Bearcats with four points, all of which came from scoring goals on six attempts at the net, while also drawing a trio of exclusions.
• Gallagher, Prokopis, and Gibson each finished with two goals in the game, with the former shooting 100%, and the latter two converting on 50.0%.
• Junior goalkeeper Gavin Haight (Jenison, Mich.) guarded the cage the whole match for 32:00 minutes, coming away with a career-high 14 saves.
• McKendree won the sprint battle 3-1.
GAME TWO vs. Cal State Fullerton
BOX SCORE
Score: McKendree University 9, California State University, Fullerton 24
Record: Bearcats 1-3, 0-0 WWPA | Titans 3-5, 0-0 Big West
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Titans withheld McKendree from putting anything into the net for the vast majority of the first half of the match until Le Goff was able to fire one in with two seconds remaining to finally put the Bearcats on the board. Gibson ignited the engine for his squad to start the third period of play by depositing the second half's first goal for either side, despite being down by a sizeable margin.
The McKendree defense picked up significantly in the final two quarters, not allowing more than two goals in a row. The team was able to wear out the pressure of Cal State Fullerton, as they chipped in nine goals in the final 16 minutes of play, with various contributions from Le Goff, Robertson, Gallagher, Gibson, and Del Campo.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
• Le Goff earned himself a hat-trick with three goals on seven attempts, leading all Bearcats in scoring.
• Robertson followed with a pair of scoring possessions and a drawn exclusion.
• Haight guarded the net for 16:00 minutes and finished with four saves as graduate goalkeeper Gennaro Pecoraro (Pesaro, Italy) also went in for 16:00 minutes and came away with one save.
UP NEXT
McKendree will be back in action in two weeks on Saturday, September 20th, when they return to the Land of Lincoln for an in-state matchup at Augustana College with a start time at 2:00 PM CT at the Anne Greve Lund Natatorium in Rock Island, Illinois.
The game can be watched for free on the Viking Sports Network (YouTube).
Make sure to keep up with McKendree University Water Polo on X (Twitter) and Instagram. #NCAAwaterpolo
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