PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The No. 18-ranked Brown University men’s water polo earned two wins by taking down Long Island University, 12-4, and Division III No. 6 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 15-10, at the Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center.
“This was a good day for us to focus on our defense,” said head coach Felix Mercado. “That has been our focus the last week of practice because, I felt that at the Bruno Classic we gave up too many easy goals. Our guys did a good job trying to apply what we have been working on.”
Brown dominated the first half against Long Island on its way to a big win over the Sharks to start the day. Ilias Stothart netted four goals for Brown, while eight other Bears each scored one goal.
Stothart scored two goals with Chang added one as Brown took a 3-1 lead. Brown used a 9-0 run, spanning from 6:11 in the first quarter to 3:15 in the third quarter as the Bears built an 11-2 lead.
Filip Aleksic and Cole Atwell both scored in the second quarter. Anderson Todd and Mike Winther each found the back of the net in the third quarter and Trey Rogers scored in the final eight minutes.
Facing MIT, the Bears used strong second and third quarters to take down the Engineers in Brown’s second game of the day. Matt Simko led the Bears with four goals. Both Gabe Chang and Stothart each scored three goals.
Chang got the Bears on the board first with a goal 20 seconds into the game after a penalty by MIT. Following an Engineers’ equalizer, Evan Moore added a score to regain the lead and after another goal tied up the game, Ben Kirshon put Brown ahead after one quarter.
Goals by Leo Berkman, Stothart and two from Simko helped Brown jump ahead as the Bears won the quarter 4-1.
In the third quarter, Brown outscored MIT 5-3 with goals coming from Kirshon, Simko, Chang, Stothart and Maxwell Patterson.
Simko, Chang and Stothart also added goals for the Bears in the final quarter.
Release courtesy Brown University Athletics Communications
