Sept. 14, 2014 PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Facing off with a pair of top-20 ranked opponents just one day after playing three games, including two one-goal contests, resulted in two setbacks for the No. 14 Navy water polo team on Sunday at the Bruno Fall Classic. Competing in the invitational that was hosted by Brown University, the Mids lost 12-7 to No. 16 Santa Clara in the morning before falling to No. 18 Harvard, 13-9.
Carpenter Warren (Jr., Baltimore, Md.) and Will Weggeland (Jr., Riverside, Calif.) led Navy's offensive effort on Sunday as they were the only Mids with three or more points over the two games. Warren finished with five points, while Weggeland notched three.
The Mids' full slate of challenging games from Saturday finally caught up with them on Sunday morning as Navy was defeated by No. 16 Santa Clara in a 9:15 a.m. matchup by a 12-7 margin. After the teams played an even first quarter, a 7-0 run by the Broncos over the second, third and early part of the fourth quarter spelled defeat for the Mids.
Play between Navy and Santa Clara began with goal-for-goal scoring over the opening eight minutes. After a Bronco score at 6:31, Carl Dowzicky (Jr., Collegeville, Pa.) evened the game for the Mids with a tally at 2:49. In a span of 29 seconds, Santa Clara would jump ahead only to see Taylor Peterson (So., Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.) respond with the equalizer at the 1:40 mark.
With the score tied at 2-2 at the beginning of the second quarter, the teams battled through nearly four minutes of scoreless action before the Broncos netted goal number three with 4:06 showing on the clock. This score began a run of goals over the next 13 minutes that turned a 2-2 contest into a 9-2 lead for Santa Clara. The Broncos led 5-2 after second quarters and 8-2 after three.
Down by seven goals with 7:05 to play in regulation, Navy connected for five goals, but came out short by a final score of 12-7. Peterson, Richard Thomas (Jr., Long Beach, Calif.), Thomas Patterson (Sr., Orange, Calif.), Lunsford Schock (Fr., St. Louis, Mo.) and Kyle Koenig (Jr., Atherton, Calif.) recorded the Mids' goal in the final quarter of play.
"Yesterday's games caught up with us," said Navy head coach Mladen Stanicic. "We came out flat and a very solid team like Santa Clara knew what to do. Looking on the bright side, the score gap was made respectable by our bench. They came in and re-introduced some energy into our game setting up nice goals by Thomas, Schock and Koenig."
In the second game of the day, the Mids took on the 18th-ranked Crimson of Harvard University. The two CWPA league foes put together 24 minutes of even action before a 4-0 goal by the Crimson in the fourth quarter sealed the Mids' fate in an eventual 13-9 final decision.
Over the opening quarter of play both Navy and Harvard posted a pair of goals as the Crimson opened the scoring with tally at 5:53. The Mids responded to take the lead with back-to-back goals at 3:53 and 2:01 by Warren and Dowzicky, respectively. A goal by Harvard with 10 seconds on the clock tied the game going into the first quarter break.
With the score at 2-2, the teams traded goals over the first half of the second period. Navy registered the first point as Warren netted his second goal of the game at 7:26. After Harvard found the back of the net in its next possession to make it 3-3, Weggeland put Navy right back ahead at the 6:37 mark. Consecutive goals by the Crimson's Viktor Wrobel at 4:34 and 4:02 gave his squad a 5-4 lead at halftime.
The back-and-forth play continued into the third quarter as the Navy went up 6-5 on a pair of Warren goals at 7:15 and 4:58. After another goal by Harvard's Wrobel made it 6-6, Patterson netted his first goal of the game at 4:02. This tally extended the senior's streak of games with a goal to all 10 contests this season. Just like in the previous 20-plus minutes of play, a Navy goal was responded to by a Harvard score at the 3:38 mark to make it 7-7. Weggeland gave the Mids' their final lead with his second goal of the game at 2:16. The Crimson tied it up at 8-8 with 14 ticks remaining in the third period. This marked the eighth tie over the first 24 minutes.
Coming out in the fourth quarter, Harvard finally found a way to pull away from Navy as it netted four straight unanswered goals between 7:32 and 3:54 to make it 12-8. Koenig scored for the Mids to tighten the game to 12-9 with 2:32 remaining, but it would be for naught as the Crimson held on for a 13-9 victory.
Garrett Sabesky (Jr., Lakeside, Calif.) did his part in goal to keep the Mids in the game throughout as the third-year goalkeeper turned aside a season-high 12 shots.
"Energy wise this was a repeat of this morning's game," said Stanicic. "Harvard shot the ball well, while we missed a few great opportunities, primarily on our power plays. We now have to turn our attention to league play next weekend with games against Princeton and Bucknell."
Navy will be back in action next Saturday with a pair of CWPA Southern division contests at Lejeune Hall. The Mids open play on Sept. 20 at 2 p.m. versus Bucknell before taking on Princeton at 7:30 p.m.
