Brown University-vs.-MIT (Game 2 – 2018 Northeast Water Polo Conference Championship)
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Matt Simko (Fr., Coral Gables, Fla./Ransom Everglades) batted a pass into the upper left 90 of the cage with four seconds left in the fourth quarter for the deciding factor in an 8-7 victory by the host/No. 16-ranked Brown University Bears over Division III No. 5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the opening day of the 2018 Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Championship hosted at Brown’s Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center.
The win advances Brown (18-12, 6-4 NWPC) into a semifinal showdown at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 17, versus archrival/NWPC regular season champion/2016 and 2017 NWPC Champion/No. 12 Harvard University. Brown stands at 1-1 against the Crimson this year with an 11-9 win and a 12-11 loss. A win against Harvard will snap the Crimson’s two-year reign on top of the NWPC and send Brown to the league title game for the first time since an 11-7 loss to Harvard at Princeton University for the 2016/inaugural Northeast Water Polo Conference title.
In a game that followed the recognition of former Brown standout Steve Ennis’ ’86 entrance into the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Hall of Fame, it was the first-year Simko who stood tallest when it counted to garner Player of the Game laurels.
In the third meeting of the year between the two New England institutions following 11-10 and 9-7 wins by Brown in overtime during NWPC regular season action, the two programs did not disappoint in their third clash as the teams were tied at one-all, two-all, three-all, four-all, five-all, six-all and seven-all leading up to Simko’s deciding blow in the waning seconds of the contest to avoid six more minutes of water polo in a third overtime meeting.
Brown jumped on the scoreboard first in the opening quarter of competition as James Thygesen (Jr., Menlo Park, Calif./Menlo School) swished a man-up strike with 6:38 on the clock. MIT pulled even at 6:04 as Clyde Huibregtse (Jr., New York, N.Y./Bronx) bombed in a power-play conversion of his own to balance the scoreboard at one-all. Following a natural tally by Thygesen to move in front 2-1, and an equalizer by Miller Geschke (Fr., Los Altos, Calif./Menlo School) at 3:44, the Bears acquired their third lead at 3-2 via a scoring volley by Spencer Carroll (Sr., Newport Beach, Calif./Mater Dei) with 1:04 on the clock to exit the first eight minutes of action in front.
MIT (9-13, 2-8 NWPC) erased the margin with 5:53 to go in the second quarter as Evan Kim (So., Irvine, Calif./Arnold O. Beckman) lined in a shot to make it three-all. Brown went back in front at 4;3 with 4:45 on the clock as Travis Bouscaren (Sr., Cambridge, Mass./Phillips Academy Andover) hammered home a man-up chance against his hometown team prior to Geschke squaring the sides at four-all going into halftime by finding the back of the cage with a natural marker at the 2:30 mark.
The Engineers appeared to take command of the contest in the dawning moments of the third quarter as Geschke roped in a five-meter penalty shot at 7:19 and Ward Weldon (Jr., Honolulu, Hawaii/Punahou School) uncorked a natural goal at 4:49 to stake the Engineers to its first – and only lead – at 6-4.
Brown began to eradicate its deficit in the closing minutes of the third quarter as Thygesen completed a hat-trick with 2:33 to go in the frame to pull within 6-5.
The Bears turned the tables on MIT to begin the fourth quarter as Bouscaren (6:05, natural) and Thygesen (penalty shot, 4:41) pushed Brown ahead 7-6 with under five minutes left to play.
Following nearly two and a half minutes of back-and-forth water polo with neither team able to solve the other’s defense, MIT broke through with 2:13 remaining as Weldon whipped in a man-up chance to make it seven-all.
The game remained that way until Simko’s deciding tally with four seconds left in regulation.
For Brown,Thygesen (four) and Bouscaren (two) both posted multi-goal games, while Carroll and Simko tacked on solo strikes.
In cage, Riad Hallal (So., Coronado, Calif./Coronado) earned the start for the Bears and posted five saves with four goals allowed in a no-decision. Ugo Piovan (Fr., Vouliagmeni, Greece/Athens College) earned the win by notching five saves with three goals allowed in the second half.
Geschke finished with three goals to lead the way for MIT with Weldon (two), Kim (one) and Huibregtse (one) accounting for the remainder of the Engineers’ offense. Goalie Hayden Niederreiter (Jr., Visalia, Calif./Golden West) took the loss with 11 saves.
Due to the loss, MIT will compete in the Fifth Place game against Iona College – which dropped a 16-7 game to No. 18 Princeton in the opening game of the 2018 NWPC Championship – at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 17. It will mark the third consecutive year the Engineers and Gaels will battle for Fifth Place as Iona went the distance and beyond to down MIT in both 2016 (9-8 W OT SD at Princeton) and 2017 (10-9 W OT at Harvard).
| 1st Q | 2nd Q | 3rd Q | 4th Q | – | FINAL | |
| MIT | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | – | 7 |
| Brown University | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | – | 8 |
| Brown Goals: | James Thygesen (4); Travis Bouscaren (2); Spencer Carroll; Matt Simko | |||||
| MIT Goals: | Miller Geschke (3); Ward Weldon (2); Evan Kim; Clyde Huibregtse | |||||
| Saves: | Brown – Riad Hallal (5, 16 minutes), Ugo Piovan (5, 16 minutes) ; MIT – Hayden Niederreiter (11) | |||||
| Exclusions: | Brown – 8 ; MIT – 9 | |||||
| Advantage Opportunities: | Brown – 3-for-9 ; MIT – 3-for-8 | |||||
| Sprints: | Brown – 4-for-4 ; MIT – 0-for-4 | |||||
| Cards/Misconducts: | None | |||||
| Officials: | Michael Goldenberg, Scott Voltz | |||||
Brown University’s Spencer Carroll (#2) looks for an opening in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology defense
Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Alex Tsotadze (#12) stares down Brown University’s Armen Deirmenjian (#24)
Brown University’s Riad Hallal (#1)
Brown University’s Hudson Rawlings (#10)
