ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Isaac Salinas (Sr., Spring City, Pa./Malvern Prep), Hayden Kahn (So., San Clemente, Calif./San Clemente), Michael Heller (Fr., Menlo Park, Calif./Sacred Heart Prep) and Nathan Duchez (So., San Jose, Calif./Saint Francis) all netted hat-tricks as the No. 20-ranked/host/No. 2 seed Midshipmen of the United States Naval Academy built a 13-7 lead by halftime and never looked back in outdueling the Golden Knights of Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC)-West Region Champion/No. 7 seed Gannon University, 20-13, in the opening round of the 2021 MAWPC Championship.
Competing at Lejeune Hall, the Midshipmen (15-12, 9-3 MAWPC-East) punch their ticket into the tournament semifinals as Navy will return to the water at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 20, versus the victor of a first round game pitting No. 3 seed George Washington University and Division III No. 5/No. 6 seed Johns Hopkins University. Navy stands at 1-1 against GW this year as the Mids handled the Colonials 12-9 in overtime, but suffered an 11-10 setback in their second meeting in Annapolis. Versus Hopkins, Navy claimed 14-10 and 18-5 wins.
Gannon (13-9, 3-1 MAWPC-West) – which claimed the MAWPC-West Championship on November 7 at Mylan Park Aquatics Center in Morgantown, W.Va. courtesy a 15-13 versus McKendree University – will take on the fallen from the GW-JHU game at 3:00 p.m. on November 20 with eyes on claiming a spot in the Fifth Place game.
The last time the Golden Knights made the MAWPC Championship in 2019 at Bucknell University, the team fell to Fordham University (16-11 L) and Johns Hopkins (17-13 L) prior to topping then varsity program La Salle University (15-9 W) to claim Seventh Place. In 2017 at Navy, Gannon fell to George Washington (10-7 L) and Johns Hopkins (12-11 L) before stopping MAWPC-West runner-up Mercyhurst University (13-12 W OT SD) in the Seventh Place game.
Gannon drew first blood against the Naval Academy as Drago Marjanovic (Sr., Belgrade, Serbia/North Allegheny (Pa.)) broke the ice 47 seconds into the game (7:13) with a five-meter penalty shot to stake the Golden Knights to an early 1-0 margin.
The lead lasted for 23 seconds as Kahn netted a man-up score at 6:50 to balance the scoreboard and shift the momentum in favor of the home team.
Kahn followed with an even-strength strike at 6:11 to push Navy ahead 2-1, but Gannon registered an equalizer by Vlad Mickic (Jr., Subotica, Serbia/Nikola Tesla) at 5:57 to deadlock the teams at two-all. The pattern repeated itself once more as Salinas returned Navy to the lead at 4:32 before Dylan Schmitzerle (So., Richmond, Va./Huron) erased the margin at 4:08 to make it three-all.
The Mids went ahead to stay as Heller (3:52, 2:05) and Duchez (1:40) combined for back-to-back-to-back strikes to provide the Blue & Gold some breathing room at 6-3.
Tony Squeglia (R-Sr., Erie, Pa./Cathedral Prep) snapped the scoring run prior to the quarter’s concluding horn as he slipped in a shot at 1:08 to pull the Golden Knights back to within 6-4.
Salinas padded the margin to 7-4 44 seconds into the second quarter, but a man-up tally by Mickic at 6:17 closed the gap back to a pair at 7-5.
The lead grew to five over the next two minutes as Salinas (5:54), Duchez (5:10) and Tommy McKnew (Fr., Tiburon, Calif./Redwood) (4:12) torched Gannon for a trio of tallies to make it 10-5.
Ethan Hamp (R-Sr., Chicago, Ill./Von Steuben) terminated the spree at 3:58 with a successful five-meter penalty shot to inch Gannon back to within four at 10-6, but the Mids answered via a penalty shot by Ivan Pang (So., El Monte, Calif./Temple City) at 2:44 to again enlarge the spread to five at 11-6.
Gannon refused to go away, however, as Schmitzerle lobbed in a marker at 2:00 to pullback to within four at 11-7, but Jack Weggeland (Sr., Riverside, Calif./Riverside Poly) (1:41, man-up) and Salinas (1:16, penalty shot) closed out the first half to cushion Navy’s lead to 13-7 through 16 minutes of action.
The gap widened further in the first minute of the second half/third quarter as Will Clark (Jr., Laguna Beach, Calif./Laguna Beach) and Jake Altmayer (Jr., Pasadena, Calif./Loyola) put away shots at 7:34 and 7:00, respectively, to make it a 15-7 game.
Squeglia responded for Gannon at 6:43, but Kahn (5:42) and Chris Kim (Fr., Los Angeles, Calif./Harvard-Westlake) (1:49) ticked off back-to-back tallies to provide the home team a 17-8 lead.
Mickic (38 seconds) and Ben Fribourg (Fr., Cincinnati, Ohio/Sycamore) (one second) wrapped up the third quarter with consecutive Golden Knights’ markers to shrink Navy’s lead down to seven at 17-10 heading into the fourth quarter.
Seth Johnson (Jr., Sugar Hill, Georgia/Lanier) continued chipping away at the spread by denting the twine with 7:15 left in regulation to inch Gannon within six at 17-11.
However, Weggeland (6:41) and Duchez (4:30) delivered to widen the difference between the programs to 19-11. Back-to-back goals by Marty Kaverman (Jr, Erie, Pa./McDowell) at 4:02 (penalty shot) and 3:18 (even-strength) pulled the Golden Knights to within six (19-13) with approximately three minutes to play.
Neither team was able to find the back of the cage for the next minute until Henry Williams (Fr., San Diego, Calif./Steele Canyon) capped off the Navy win with 1:55 left in regulation for his team’s 20th and final goal.
For Navy, Weggeland scored twice to join Salinas, Kahn, Heller and Duchez in posting multi-score games. Pang, Altmayer, Clark, Williams, Kim and McKnew each registered solo markers.
Navy used three goalies in the game, finishing with 16 saves as a team. Starter Caden Capobianco (So. Laguna Beach, Calif./Laguna Beach) earned the win, finishing the game with 11 saves, while surrendering 11 goals in 26 minutes of play. He gave way to Owen Gurich (So., Long Beach, Calif./Woodrow Wilson) who worked the next three minutes between the posts, recording five saves and two steals, giving up just a pair of scores. Jonas Greer (Jr., Los Angeles, Calif./Loyola) closed out the game, working the final three minutes with a clean scoresheet and a save.
Mickic (three), Kaverman (two), Squeglia (two) and Schmitzerle (two) accounted for nine of Gannon’s 13 goals with Fribourg, Johnson and Hamp tacking on single scores in the loss. Alvaro Marco (Fr., Madrid, Spain/IEW Ortega y Gasset) made 13 saves in taking the loss.
| 1st Q | 2nd Q | 3rd Q | 4th Q | – | FINAL | |
| Gannon University |
4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | – | 13 |
| No. 20 United States Naval Academy | 6 | 7 | 4 | 3 | – | 20 |
| Navy Goals: | Isaac Salinas (3); Hayden Kahn (3); Michael Heller (3); Nathan Duchez (3); Jack Weggeland (2); Ivan Pang; Jake Altmayer; Will Clark; Henry Williams; Chris Kim; Tommy McKnew | |||||
| Gannon Goals: | Vlad Mickic (3); Marty Kaverman (2); Tony Squeglia (2); Dylan Schmitzerle (2); Ben Fribourg; Seth Johnson; Ethan Hamp; Drago Marjanovic | |||||
| Saves: | Navy – Caden Capobianco (11, 26 minutes), Owen Gurich (5, 8 minutes), Jonas Greer (1, 3 minutes; Gannon – Alvaro Marco (13) | |||||
| Exclusions: | Navy – 11 ; Gannon – 9 | |||||
| Advantage Opportunities: | Navy – 5-for-9 ; Gannon – 3-for-11 | |||||
| Sprints: | Navy – 3-for-4 (1st, 3rd, 4th) ; Gannon -1-for-4 (2nd) | |||||
| Cards/Misconducts: | YC – Gannon (Head coach Shane Unger, 4:12 left in 2nd Q) | |||||
| Officials: | Mike Gordon; Igor Mernenko | |||||
