Oct. 10, 2012
BALTIMORE, Md. and WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The 14th-ranked Navy water polo team split its two-game weekday road trip on Wednesday, falling to Johns Hopkins, 14-13, in the day's first game before topping George Washington, 14-8, in the nightcap.
The split moves Navy's record to 17-2 overall and 3-1 in the CWPA Southern Division standings. Johns Hopkins improved to 18-5 overall and 3-1 in league play, while George Washington falls to 9-10 overall and 1-3 in league play.
The loss to Johns Hopkins was just the second in 46 all-time meetings between the two squads as Navy now owns a 44-2 series lead.
"We have escaped a lot of times when we have played up there, but weren't able to escape tonight," said Navy head coach Mike Schofield. "We did a lot of encouraging things, but made a lot of costly errors on defense. We would work hard on defense, then have a lapse that would result in a goal. You have to give credit to Johns Hopkins. They played very well tonight."
Johns Hopkins had just two leads during the contest, coming at 1-0 and the final score of 14-13. Navy led 3-2 after one quarter and 7-5 at halftime. Navy held a 10-9 lead after three quarters.
Jesse Walker led Navy with four goals, while Archie Warren and Paul Pedrotty had three goals each. Erich Schwamb tallied a pair of goals. Tyler Barker made five stops in goal for the Midshipmen against the Blue Jays.
The Midshipmen rebounded in the nightcap with a 14-8 decision over George Washington. The Midshipmen led 4-0 after one quarter and 7-2 at halftime. The Midshipmen lead was 8-5 after three quarters, before outscoring the Colonials, 6-3, in the final quarter for the final 14-8 margin.
"We were a little more consistent and didn't have as many individual lapses," said Schofield. "We started a whole different group against GWU and those guys got us off to a great start. Our normal starters came in and were able to keep it going. It was a big confidence-builder for those guys.
"George Washington is a talented group and will be a handful for someone at the end of the year. This was a good win for us," added Schofield.
Thomas Patterson led Navy with four goals, while Pedrotty added three tallies. Walker, Sean McDonald and Lucas MacLellan scored twice. Gutierrez stopped seven shots in goal while Caleb Lintz made three saves.
Navy will return to action on Saturday, when it travels to Princeton for a noon game in Princeton, N.J., before traveling to Lewisburg, Pa., for a 7:30 PM game against Bucknell, also on Saturday.
# GO NAVY #
