NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. — The Iona College men’s water polo team honored their seven seniors on Senior Night with a 17-5 non-conference victory over Penn State Behrend of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) at Hynes Pool.
Prior to the game, Iona recognized seniors Jonathan Hulbert, Andrew Judge, Patrick Judge, Jay Pagano, Zach Roper, Matthew Rothman and Marc Stauble. Stauble led the Gaels with four goals, while Rothman and Patrick Judge had three scores each. Senior Jay Pagano scored two goals, and senior Zach Roper, junior Spencer Anthony, sophomore Quinn Lloyd, freshmen Daniel Savage and Andrew Brozovic hit one goal apiece. The Gaels made five assists with three by Rothman.
In goal, sophomore Michael Banks made five saves on 21 Penn State Behrend shots and three steals.
On defense, Iona made 26 steals with seven by Brozovic, four by Stauble and three by Pagano, and blocked one shot. The Gaels drew eight Lions’ kickouts and were ejected three times. Iona turned the ball over 11 times and scored once on eight man-up chances.
With Iona head coach Brian Kelly starting his seniors, they responded by quickly taking 5-0 lead in the opening 5:18. Just 1:16 into the match, Rothman put Iona on the board first, followed by Roper 53 seconds later for a 2-0 Gaels’ advantage. Three straight Iona scores from Rothman, Stauble and Savage gave the home squad a 5-0 lead. Penn State Behrend answered with two straight goals to narrow the Iona lead to 5-2 with 44 ticks left in the period, but Anthony’s goal 12 seconds later put the Gaels up 6-2 going into the second period.
Only 1:13 into the quarter, Stauble’s second score put Iona up 7-2, with Patrick Judge increasing the home edge to 8-2 with 5:34 to go. A minute later, Stauble’s third goal upped the Gaels’ lead to 9-2. With 45 ticks left, Behrend scored to give Iona a 9-3 halftime advantage.
Stauble needed only 40 seconds into the third quarter to hit his third goal, then Judge added his second 1:25 later to up the home lead to 11-3 at the 5:35 mark. Lloyd added a score with 1:01 on the clock to give the Gaels a 12-3 advantage going into the final period.
In the fourth quarter, the Gaels outscored the Lions 5-2 with goals from Rothman, Patrick Judge, Pagano (two) and Brozovic to seal the win. Pagano received a warm ovation for hitting his first two tallies of the season.
Having struggled with turnovers and injuries in the past few weeks, Kelly was pleased with his squad’s performance.
“We’ve shown that we’re a very good team when we don’t turn the ball over,” Kelly said. “We’ve been working pretty hard all week on our offense, and we’re hoping it pays dividends now that we’re just about 100 percent healthy.”
Release courtesy Iona College Athletics Communications
