No. 19 Brown University Dispatches Iona College, 13-11, to Make 2019 Northeast Water Polo Conference Championship Semifinals

No. 19 Brown University-vs.-Iona College Scoresheet (NWPC Championship Game 2)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — James Thygesen (Sr., Menlo Park, Calif./Menlo School) and 2019 Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Rookie of the Year Cole Atwell (Fr., San Diego, Calif./La Jolla) both registered hat-tricks to lead nine scorers for No. 19-ranked Brown University as the Bears overcame Iona College, 13-11, on the opening day of the 2019 NWPC Championship hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Courtesy the victory, Brown (21-11, 6-4 NWPC) earns a 5:00 p.m. semifinal showdown against fellow No. 19-ranked Princeton University on Saturday, November 23.  The winner of the semifinal will clash with either No. 9 Harvard University or St. Francis College Brooklyn for the NWPC Championship and a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) automatic bid on Sunday, November 24, at 12:30 p.m.

Brown finished 1-1 against the Tigers during the regular season as the Bears picked up a 10-8 win at home in Providence, R.I. on November 2 after suffering a 12-9 setback in the Garden State on October 6.

Iona (6-22, 0-10 NWPC) falls into the Fifth Place game at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 23, against the host Engineers – which took an 18-8 setback against St. Francis Brooklyn.  It will mark the fourth consecutive year the two programs will meet for Fifth Place with Iona claiming victories in 2016 (9-8 W OT SD at Princeton) and 2017 (10-9 W OT at Harvard) before MIT took the 2018 meeting (16-11 W at Brown).

The Gaels finished 0-2 versus the Engineers during the regular season as Iona dropped games in New Rochelle, N.Y. (10-9 L OT SD, October 5) and Cambridge (11-10 L, November 2).

In the third meeting of the year between the Bears and Gaels in the wake of prior Brown victories on October 5 (14-11 W at Iona) and November 3 (17-12 W at Brown), the Providence ursine fell behind 1-0 behind building 4-2, 8-6 and 12-9 leads at the conclusion of the first, second and third quarters on the way to a two-goal victory.

Quinn Lloyd (Sr., Sinking Spring, Pa./Wilson) put Iona on the board 61 seconds into the game by converting a man-up chance with 6:59 left in the opening frame.  It marked the only time the Gaels were in front of the Bears as Andrew Penner (So., Atherton, Calif./Deerfield Academy (Mass.)), Aidan Reilly (Jr., Los Angeles, Calif./Loyola) and Matt Simko (So., Coral Gables, Fla./Ransom Everglades) registered back-to-back-to-back goals at 6:01, 5:29 and 4:17, respectively, to put Brown into the lead to stay at 3-1.

Brett Hofer (Jr., Tinley Park, Ill./Victor J. Andrew) responded for Iona by burying a man-up chance at 1:20, but Thygesen returned the favor by firing in a natural strike with 58 seconds left to make it 4-2 after eight minutes of action.

The lead continued to grow in the opening moments of the second quarter as Armen Deirmenjian (Sr., Beverly Hills, Calif./Loyola) and Nick Berry (Fr., San Anselmo, Calif./Sir Francis Drake) connected on man-up (7:08) and even-strength (6:42) scores, respectively, to set the Bears’ lead at 6-2.

Phillip Wachowski (R-Sr., Park Ridge, Ill./Maine South) snapped Brown’s three-goal scoring run by putting away a power-play opportunity at 6:04, but Adam Fuller (Jr., Santa Barbara, Calif./San Marcos) and Gabe Kaplan (So., Santa Monica, Calif./Harvard-Westlake School) responded in a similar fashion by burying man-up goals at 4:45 and 3:20, respectively, to make it a five-score contest at 8-3.

However, the Gaels began to make the game more interesting with halftime on the horizon thanks to an even-strength strike by German Rodriguez (So., Lima, Peru/Santa Maria) at 3:05 followed by consecutive man-up conversions from Andrew Brozovic (Jr., Franfort, Ill./Lincoln-Way East) (2:08) and Wachowski (48 seconds) to close the gap against the Bears to two at 8-6 by the break.

Following halftime, Brown attempted to pull away as Thygesen lined in a five-meter penalty shot at 7:42 to return the margin to three at 9-6.

The lead swayed from two-to-three-to-four and back to three for the remainder of the quarter as Wachowski connected on another man-up chance at 7:13 (9-7), Thygesen delivered his power-play conversion at 6:52 (10-7), Atwell followed with another six-on-five score at 4:14 (11-7) and an even-strength marker at 2:59 (12-8) prior to Brozovic delivering for the Gaels at 1:41 (12-9).

Rodriguez placed Iona on the doorstep of a comeback by sniping a shot into the cage with 5:58 to go in the fourth quarter to move the Gaels within a pair at 12-10.  The rally was not to be, however, as Atwell delivered a counterpoint by means of a man-up strike at 5:21 to return the lead to three at 13-10.  Neither team could muster much offense from there as an even-strength marker by Lester Machado (Fr., Hialeah, Fla./Hialeah) closed out the offense with 4:53 to go for the 13-11 final score.

For Brown, Berry, Reilly, Simko, Penner, Deirmenjian, Kaplan and Fuller each chipped in single goals to accompany hat-tricks from Thygesen and Atwell.  In cage, Riad Hallal (Jr., Coronado, Calif./Coronado) earned the start and the win by stopping five shots in the first half. Ugo Piovan (So., Vouliagmeni, Greece/Athens College) wrapped up the victory by turning aside six shots in the second half.

Wachowski (three), Lloyd (two), Brozovic (two) and Rodriguez (two) each recorded multi-goal games for the Gaels with Hofer and Machado both finding the back of the cage once.  Jorge Andres Torres (Sr., Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico/Colegio San Jose) made 14 saves between the pipes for Iona.

Brown University’s Nick Berry (#4) looks for an open player as Iona College’s Philip Wachowski (#19) defends