LEWISBURG, Pa. - The Navy water polo team completed action at the Bucknell Invitational on Sunday with dominant victories over Penn State Behrend and the University of Toronto. In a morning matchup versus the Lions, the Mids won 17-4 before coming back in the afternoon and defeating the Blues by a score of 15-9. David Huber (Jr., Fort Washington, Pa.) highlighted Navy's well-balanced effort with six goals on the day.

Navy 17 - Penn State Behrend 4

The Mids jumped out to a commanding 7-0 lead over the opening 11:58 of action in the Sunday morning matchup versus the Lions of Penn State Behrend. Six different Navy players found the back of the net versus PSU-B during this stretch with only Huber scoring twice. Huber, Matt Skowronski (So., Oak Hill, Va.), Taylor Peterson (Jr., Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.), Carl Dowzicky (Sr., Collegeville, Pa.) and Evan Staresinic (Jr., Bradford Woods, Pa.) all scored in the first quarter before Huber and Robert Sutherland (Sr., Denton, Texas) tallied markers over the first 3:58 of play in the second period. A Penn State Behrend goal at 3:10 was the Lions' only score of the first half. Jared Castillo (So., League City, Texas) and Brendan Metcalf (Jr., Frisco, Texas) rounded out Navy's scoring in the opening 16 minutes.

With the score 9-1, PSU-B cut into its deficit in the third quarter with two goals versus one for Navy. J.B. Lee (So., Newport Coast, Calif.) netted the Mids' only score.

Play opened back up in the fourth period as Navy salted away the victory with seven goals. Greg Gruseck (Fr., Mason, Ohio) led the attack with a hat trick. Tyler Zimmerman (So., McLean, Va.), Gabe Gaspar (So., Pittsburgh, Pa.), Castillo and Huber joined Gruseck in the scoring column in the final quarter. A late Lion goal with 12 seconds remaining finished the game at 17-4.

Caleb Lintz (Sr., Mechanicsburg, Pa.), Garrett Sabesky (Sr., Lakeside, Calif.) and Francis Kim (Fr., Houston, Texas) all saw time in goal for the Mids. Lintz topped the trio with eight saves on 11 PSU-B shots on target.

"We used this game to try out some concepts," remarked head coach Mladen Stanicic. "Our starters played well, but the energy off the bench was sporadic. We will rely heavily on those players so it is important to us to play at 100 percent regardless of the score."

Navy 15 - Toronto 9

Once again a fast start by the Mids played a role in the eventual outcome of its contest with the Blues. Over the initial 6:35 of play in the first quarter, Navy netted five unanswered goals. Dowzicky and Sutherland each scored two goals during this run, while Skowronski beat Toronto's goalie once. A quick swapping of goals in the final 10 seconds made it a 6-1 score after one period of play. Metcalf found the back of the net with just under one second left.

Navy continued playing a strong brand of two-way water polo in the second quarter as the Mids outscored the Blues 5-1 to expand their lead out to 11-2 at halftime. Huber scored twice for Navy, while the trio of Dowzicky, Thomas Allen (Sr., Fresno, Calif.) and Steven Emde (Sr., Ballwin, Mo.) all tallied one goal each.

The onslaught by the Mids carried over into the third period as they opened with four straight goals to build up a 15-2 lead. Jack Robinson (So., Riverside, Conn.), Richard Thomas (Sr., Long Beach, Calif.), Kyle Koenig (Sr., Atherton, Calif.) and Huber all scored for Navy in the quarter.

Over the final 8:13 of action, Toronto score seven unanswered goals to make the final score 15-9.

Sabesky and Lintz split up the time in the cage for Navy. Sabesky led way with 10 saves on 15 shots by the Blues.

"This was probably our best game of the season," said Stanicic. "We played a very disciplined game with few errors. This is exactly what we set out to do. We have a lot of respect for this Toronto team; they certainly showed they can play in some earlier games over the weekend with wins over Mercyhurst and Penn State Behrend and a tight setback to Bucknell."

Navy will be off from action next weekend before picking back up its schedule on Friday, Sept. 25 with a non-conference bout in California versus Whittier College. The matchup with the Poets will be the first of four for the Mids in California over a three-day period.