Oct. 23, 2016 SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The Navy water polo team completed action at the Santa Clara Bronco Rodeo Tournament on Sunday with a pair of defeats. Playing as part of an expansive 15-team, four-day tournament, the Mids (6-14) closed out play with an 8-6 loss to Air Force (5-13) and an 18-12 setback against No. 20 Santa Clara (9-11).
Air Force 8 - Navy 6
The two service academy rivals faced off in the first game of the day and battled over 32 minutes in a defensive showdown. Freshman goalie Ronan Williams (Severna Park, Md.) played a leading role on the defensive end of the pool with 12 saves, while David Huber (Sr., Fort Washington, Pa.) paced the Mids' offense with three goals scored.
The first half of play saw the teams trade the first eight goals to tie at 1-1, 2-2, 3-3 and 4-4 over the opening 14:43 combined time of action in the first and second quarters. Huber got the Mids on the scoreboard first at the 6:18 mark of the first quarter. With the score tied at 1-1, Matt Skowronski (Jr., Oak Hill, Va.) put Navy back in the lead with 3:18 remaining in the first period. After a Falcon score knotted the game at 2-2, J.B. Lee (Jr., Newport Coast, Calif.) broke the tie with 4:40 left in the second quarter. A Taylor Peterson (Sr., Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.) marker at 1:17 tied the match for a fourth time at 4-4. Air Force took a late one-goal lead into halftime courtesy of a score with 23 seconds remaining.
With the score 5-4, each team scored once in the third period with Huber notching the Mids' lone goal.
Going into the final quarter with just one goal separating the teams, Air Force scored on its first possession of the stanza at 7:23 to increase its lead to two goals at 7-5. Huber responded right back for Navy with his third goal of the game just 23 seconds later at 7:00. The back-and-forth nature continued as the Falcons netted the final goal of the game a mere 25 seconds later at 6:35 to make it 8-6.
"This was a good, hard-working and competitive game that could've gone either way," remarked head coach Mladen Stanicic.
No. 20 Santa Clara 18 - Navy 12
In a matchup versus one of the co-hosting teams of the Bronco Rodeo in Santa Clara, the two squads played a tight and competitive opening 10 minutes before the 20th-ranked Broncos broke open the game and turned a 5-4 lead in the a 17-9 advantage in just over 14 minutes of play in the second and third quarters.
The action in a game with 30 combined goals started off fast with nine markers in the first eight minutes of play. A goal by Santa Clara's Mac Carey got the hosts out to a 1-0 lead at the 5:11 mark before the teams started traded goals at a break neck pace. Brendan Metcalf (Sr., Frisco, Texas) knotted the game at 1-1, 28 seconds later at 4:43 off of a Peterson assist during a power play situation. Huber and Lee scored goals at 4:07 and 2:24, respectively to tie the contest at 2-2 and later at 3-3. Following a pair of Bronco goals that made it 5-3, Trevor Clark (Fr., San Marcos, Calif.) tightened the game up to a 5-4 margin before the expiration of the first quarter.
After nearly two minutes of scoreless play, Santa Clara got its offense in gear and ran off a streak of five unanswered goals between 6:19 and 0:49 to go up 10-4. Over the final 32 seconds of the second quarter, the teams combined to score three goals. Huber netted a five-meter penalty shot before Jared Castillo (Jr., League City) took a pass from Clark to make it 11-6 going into the halftime intermission.
A heavy dose of Santa Clara offense in the third quarter further increased the Broncos' lead out to 17-9. Castillo scored twice in the period for Navy, while Peterson found the back of the net once.
In the final eight minutes of play, Navy outscored Santa Clara by a 3-1 margin to send the game final at 18-12. Huber netted his third, fourth and fifth individual goals of the contest during the fourth quarter.
"Turnovers cost us in the middle of the game versus Santa Clara," said Stanicic. "We can take multiple positives away from this game though as our centers played very well, particularly Dave Huber, in addition to the fact that we competed through the final whistle and outscored them in the fourth quarter."
Once they return back to the East Coast, the Mids will turn their attention back to MAWPC conference play with a Saturday afternoon matchup at George Washington on Oct. 29. The Mids will play in the Colonials' home pool in Washington, D.C. at 3 p.m.
