Oct. 19, 2007
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The 11th-ranked Navy water polo team jumped out fast, then held on in the second half to defeat 16th-ranked Bucknell, 8-6, before a standing-room only crowd at MacDonough Hall on Friday night. The win was the sixth in the row and 10th in the last 11 games for the Mids and pushes Navy's record to 16-5 overall.
"We had a great first quarter, then kind of coasted the rest of the game," said Navy head coach Mike Schofield. "You have to give Bucknell credit. They played very hard and made it tough for us in the second half. Fortunately, we were able to make enough plays and get the win."
The Mids surged to a 3-0 lead just four minutes into the game thanks to a pair of goals by Kevin Bell and one by Mike Mulvey. The Mids would lead 4-1 after one quarter, then took their largest lead of the game at 5-1 just 35 seconds gone in the second quarter on the first of three Bram Arnold goals.
The lead would be three at 5-2 at halftime and 6-3 after three quarters, before Bucknell chipped away in the fourth quarter. The Bison scored the first two goals of the final stanza to cut the Navy lead to 6-5 with 5:07 to play. Reed MacKenzie scored with 4:24 to play to push the margin back to two goals at 7-5, before the Bison countered just 20 seconds later to cut the margin back to one at 7-6.
However, Arnold closed out his hat trick with an insurance goal on a 2-on-1 break with just 1:32 to play for the 8-6 final margin.
Arnold led the way with three goals, Kevin Bell had a pair of Tyler Hill, Mulvey and MacKenzie all had one goal. George Naughton moved into second place on the Navy career saves list with 15 stops tonight, pushing his career total to 661, past John McCullough's 649.
"George had another great game tonight," said Schofield. "He is really playing with a lot of confidence right now and is making a lot of big saves for us."
Navy will host six more games during the weekend, beginning Saturday morning at 10:00 am. Navy will play three games on Saturday and three more on Sunday.
# GO NAVY #
