PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Clyde Huibregtse (Jr., New York, N.Y./Bronx) and Player of the Game Miller Geschke (Fr., Los Altos, Calif./Menlo School) both scored four times as the Division III No. 5-ranked Engineers of the Massachusetts Institute of Tecnology (MIT) downed Iona College, 16-11, in the Fifth Place game of the 2018 Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Championship at Brown University’s Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center.
MIT (10-13, 2-8 NWPC) records its highest finish in the three-year history of the NWPC as the Engineers previously fell to Iona in overtime during the 2016 (9-8 L sudden death overtime at Princeton University) and 2017 (10-9 L overtime at Harvard University) championships Fifth Place games.
The Engineers never trailed against the Gaels (6-27, 0-10 NWPC) as Ward Weldon (Jr., Honolulu, Hawaii/Punahou School) drew first blood with 6:57 remaining in the first quarter for a 1-0 lead. Following a man-up conversion by Kyle Sandell (Fr., Mountain View, Calif./Los Altos) at 3:25 to enlarge the lead to 2-0, Iona chopped its deficit in half as Brett Hofer (So., Tinley Park, Ill./Victor J. Andrew) put away a six-on-five opportunity at 2:47 to move the Gaels within one at 2-1.
It marked the closest Iona would be to MIT for the remainder of the contest as Huibregtse (1:36) and Weldon (37 seconds) ticked off back-to-back even-strength strikes to make it a 4-1 game by the close of the opening frame.
Evan Kim (So., Irvine, Calif./Arnold O. Beckman) widened the gap between the programs to 5-1 50 seconds into the second quarter (7:50), but Iona’s German Rodriguez (Fr., Lima, Peru/Santa Maria) and Patrick Hudak (So., Cincinnati, Ohio/St. Xavier) trimmed the Gaels’ scoreboard debt to 5-3 with consecutive natural goals at 6:45 and 5:24.
Huibregtse snapped Iona’s scoring run at 4:05 with one of his own to return the lead to three at 6-3, but Quinn Lloyd (Jr., Sinking Spring, Pa./Wilson) responded at 3:49 to again move the Gaels within two at 6-4.
A natural score by Lucas Novak (Sr., Palo Alto, Calif./Palo Alto Senior) at 3:35 followed by a man-up marker from Huibregtse (2:33) to complete a hat-trick built MIT’s lead to 8-4, but the Gaels recorded a 2-0 run of their own as Hudak (1:36, even-strength) and Andrew Brozovic (So., Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln-Way East) (man-up, 45 seconds) tossed in answers to again pull Iona within a pair at 8-6.
The teams traded goals over the final seconds of the first half as Geschke got on the board with a five-meter penalty shot with 22 ticks remaining prior to Justin Ginsburg (Fr., Buffalo Grove, Ill./Adlai E. Stevenson) beating the buzzer with an even-strength attempt with one second remaining to make it 9-7 in favor of the Engineers at the break.
Both teams tickled the twine in the early moments of the third quarter as Geschke rifled in a shot at 7:31 and Lloyd curled a ball into the cage at 6:29 to expand and shrink the lead from 10-7 to 10-8, respectively.
MIT began to pull away from Iona over the next five minutes as Geschke (3:55, penalty shot; 3:22, even-strength) and Kevin Shen (Sr., Newbury Park, Calif./Westlake) (1:58, man-up) rattled off back-to-back-to-back strikes to make it a five-goal game at 13-8.
Hudak (1:04, man-up) and Weldon (four seconds, even-strength) closed out the third quarter as the duo deposited dueling dimes to set the scoreboard at 14-9 after 24 minutes of action.
Huibregtse (6:58, man-up) and Novak (2:02, penalty shot) finished off MIT’s scoring in the fourth quarter, while Lloyd (5:57, even-strength; 51 seconds, man-up) launched in Iona’s final markers for the 16-11 final score.
For MIT, Weldon (three) and Novak (two) joined Geschke and Huibregtse in netting multi-score games. Shen, Sandell and Kim each chipped in solo goals.
In cage, Hayden Niederreiter (Jr., Visalia, Calif./Golden West) made six saves with one goal allowed in the first quarter to stand as the goalie of record. Miguel Lamar (So., Miami, Fla./Ransom Everglades) played the remainder of the contest with nine saves over the final 24 minutes of competition.
Lloyd led the way for Iona with four goals, while Hudak put away three chances. Rodriguez, Hofer, Brozovic and Ginsberg each posted single tallies in support of an eight save effort by netminder Jorge Andres Torres (Jr., Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico/Colegio San Jose).
The loss marks the third of the season for Iona against MIT as the Engineers previously claimed 8-7 and 11-7 victories during NWPC regular season play.
| 1st Q | 2nd Q | 3rd Q | 4th Q | – | FINAL | |
| Iona College | 1 | 6 | 2 | 2 | – | 11 |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 4 | 5 | 5 | 2 | – | 16 |
| MIT Goals: | Miller Geschke (4); Clyde Huibregtse (4); Ward Weldon (3); Lucas Novak (2); Kevin Shen; Kyle Sandell; Evan Kim | |||||
| Iona Goals: | Quinn Lloyd (4); Patrick Hudak (3); German Rodriguez; Brett Hofer; Andrew Brozovic; Justin Ginsberg | |||||
| Saves: | MIT – Hayden Niederreiter (6, 8 minutes), Miguel Lamar (9, 24 minutes) ; Iona – Jorge Andres Torres (8) | |||||
| Exclusions: | MIT – 11 ; Iona – 10 | |||||
| Advantage Opportunities: | MIT – 7-for-10 ; Iona – 4-for-11 | |||||
| Sprints: | MIT – 2-for-4 (1st, 4th) ; Iona – 2-for-4 (2nd, 3rd) | |||||
| Cards/Misconducts: | YC – MIT (Head coach Bret Lathrope, 1:38 left in 1st Q); YC – MIT (Miller Geschke, 7:31 left in 3rd Q) | |||||
| Officials: | Michael Goldenberg, JR Perez | |||||
Iona College’s Quinn Lloyd (#4)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Miller Geschke (#15) scans the field of play against Iona College
