BERKELEY, Calif. — No. 4-ranked/host the University of California received goals from 13 players as the Golden Bears overpowered No. 6 Princeton University, 19-4, at the Spieker Aquatics Complex.
California never trailed as the Golden Bears jumped out to a 9-0 lead by the 1:40 mark of the second quarter, led 9-1 at halftime and iced the victory with 7-2 and 3-1 offensive outputs in the third and fourth quarters, respectively, to claim a 15-goal win.
Cal – which outshot Princeton 33-20 – started its first half offensive onslaught 20 seconds into the contest as Luke Bachler fired in an icebreaker with 7:40 left in the frame to put the ursine water polo players in front to stay. Maddox Arlett (5:05), Alex Oprea (3:11) and Tomas Perrone (1:11) made it a 4-0 contest by the conclusion of the first quarter prior to Beso Akhvlediani (6:53, man-up; 5:58), Kai Inoue (5:19) and Ilias Angelopoulos (4:14; 1:40, man-up) delivering in the second quarter to cushion the margin to 9-0.
Otto Stothart terminated the Golden Bears’ rampage by denting the twine with 1:06 to make it a 9-1 contest entering halftime.
Dom Brown (7:44) and Bachler (6:05) expanded Cal’s lead to 10 by torquing in tallies to commence the third quarter prior to Stothart (5:41, man-up) putting away his second strike of the game to trim Princeton’s deficit back to 11-2. Brown (5:22) and Taylor Bell (4:01) traded offensive jabs to make it a 12-3 score before the ursid’s offense closed out the frame with markers by Oprea (3:46, penalty shot), Patrik Kolak (2:34, man-up), Inoue(1:46) and Joao Leme (19 seconds) to expand the differential to 16-3 through 24 minutes of competition.
In the fourth quarer, Brennan Fuchslin (4:59), Chase Wilson (1:10, man-up) and Amir Shafrir (25 seconds, man-up) rifled in final blows to surround a man-up score by the Tigers’ Enrique Nuno (3:35) to finish out the 19-4 victory.
For California, Akhvlediani (two goals, two assists), Bachler (two goals, one assist), Brown (two goals, one assist), Oprea (two goals), Angelopoulos (two goals), Inoue (two goals), Shafrir (one goal, two assists), Kolak (one goal, two assists), Perrone (one goal, one assist), Arlett (one goal), Wilson (one goal) Leme (one goal), Fuchslin (one goal), Lou Schuler (one assist), Ryder Hagan (one assist) and Milan Sumich (one assist) produced the team’s offensive output with 19 goals and 12 assists, while Aran Pina (24 minutes, three goals against, eight saves) and Riley Clansen (eight minutes, one goal against, four saves) handled business in cage.
Stothart (two goals), Nuno (one goal, one assist), Bell (one goal), Tas Palcza (one assist) and Adam Peocz (one assist) combined for four goals and three assists to support an eight save effort by netminder Kristof Kovacs.
