Oct. 19, 2008
LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The 17th-ranked Navy water polo put together two solid games, routing a pair of opponents on Sunday afternoon. The Mids defeated Gannon. 19-2, in the day's first game, then swept past host Bucknell, 11-6, in the nightcap. The win improves Navy's record to 14-7 overall and 6-1 in the CWPA Southern Division.
"It was a good day for us," said Navy head coach Mike Schofield. "We played very solid defense in both games and that is something we were looking for. Against Bucknell, we played a very solid game from start to finish."
In the day's first game against Gannon, Navy surged to an 8-0 halftime lead and led 15-0 after three quarters, cruising to the 19-2 triumph.
Twelve different players scored goals for Navy, and Brett Rajchel (8 saves), Chase Hansen (5 saves) and Dominic Valentini (1 save) limited Gannon to just two goals while combining for 14 saves.
Against Bucknell, Navy led 3-2 after one quarter, 5-3 at halftime and 8-4 after three quarters. The Mids would score the first three goals of the fourth quarter to grab an 11-4 advantage, before the Bison tallied the final two goals of the contest to cut the final margin to 11-6.
Johnny Meiners led Navy with four goals, while Michael Mulvey, Alex Kofsky and Kyle Wertz each had two tallies. Kevin Bell added one goal.
Rajchel stopped eight shots in goal.
"Rajchel and Meiners had really good performances against Bucknell," said Schofield. "Meiners had a breakout game and that was something we have been looking for from him.
"It was just a good overall team game. We did a much better job defensively working as a unit," added Schofield.
Navy will travel to Princeton next Sunday for contests against Brown and Princeton. The contest with Princeton will determine the CWPA Southern Division regular-season champion and the winner will gain the No. 1 seed in the Southern Division Tournament. Princeton knocked off Navy in the team's first meeting, but Bucknell defeated the Tigers on Friday night, setting up the showdown for first.
# GO NAVY #
