ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Oliver Fodor (Jr., Budapest, Hungary/Szent Istvan Gimnazium) and Jack Leighton (Sr., Lake Forest, Calif./El Toro) both scored three times to share Player of the Game accolades as No. 5 seed Wagner College rallied from a 4-0 first quarter deficit to stun two-time defending Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) Champion/No. 4 seed Bucknell University, 8-7, in the semifinals of the 2021 Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) Championship hosted by the United States Naval Academy at Lejeune Hall.
The win advances Wagner (17-15, 6-6 MAWPC-East) of Staten Island into a 4:30 p.m. all-Empire State semifinal clash with No. 1 seed/No. 18-ranked Fordham University of the Bronx on Saturday, November 20, with a spot in the 2021 MAWPC Championship game on Sunday, November 21, at stake. The Seahawks – who fell to Fordham by 15-10 and 12-8 scores during the MAWPC-East regular season slate – will aim to return to the title game for the first time since 2017. In 2017, Wagner downed host Navy (9-8 W) and Bucknell (10-8 W) before dropping an 8-5 title tilt to George Washington University.
A three-time MAWPC Champion (2016, 2019, 2020/Winter 2021), Bucknell (11-12, 6-6 MAWPC-East) will take on Mount St. Mary’s University at 1:30 p.m., on Saturday, November 20 in the consolation side of the championship bracket. The Bison will aim to cut down the Mountaineers for the third time after picking up 12-9 and 11-5 wins during the regular season.
Bucknell – which went 1-1 against Wagner during the regular season with a 14-11 loss and a 9-5 victory – appeared primed to run away with the game in the early going as Josh Yardley (Sr., Sellersville, Pa./Pennridge) lined in back-to-back five-meter penalty shots with 7:19 and 4:23 left in the opening quarter. Hasan Mogultay (Fr., Istanbul, Turkey/Private Sezin) doubled the lead in the closing minutes of the frame by putting away natural markers at 2;48 and 1:18.
Reeling and down 4-0 after eight minutes of action, Wagner began to climb back into the game courtesy a stiffening defense in front of goalie Kevin Roach (Jr., Commerce, Calif./La Serna) as the Seahawks kept the Bison off the scoreboard until the 5:57 mark of the third quarter.
While Roach was keeping the Bison scorers at bay, the Seahawks’ offense began to awaken from its slumber thanks to Bucknell exclusions.
Zsombor Gyemant (So., Budapest, Hungary/Ady Endre) and Leighton started Wagner’s comeback as the duo deposited man-up strikes at 6:29 and 1:26, respectively, in the second quarter to trim the Bison lead down to 4-2 heading into halftime.
The lead evaporated less than two minutes into the third quarter as Fodor (7:41) and Leighton (6:11, man-up) completed Wagner’s comeback to balance the scoreboard at four-all.
Bucknell regained the lead at 5-4 with 5:57 remaining on the third quarter clock courtesy a score by Shay Gillearn (Fr., Woodland Hills, Calif./Harvard-Westlake), but Fodor registered the equalizer with 50 ticks to go for a five-all deadlock heading into the decisive fourth quarter.
The Seahawks went ahead for the first time 51 seconds into the fourth quarter as Fodor completed a hat-trick at the 7:09 mark to push Wagner ahead 6-5.
Bucknell answered at 6:06 with a shot from Matt Ryckman (Fr., Caracas, Venezuela/Loomis Chaffee (Conn.)), but Ben Zovickian (Jr., San Francisco, Calif./Saint Ignatius College Preparatory) and Leighton delivered the deciding blows at 5:33 and 4:27, respectively, to provide Wagner an 8-6 lead.
Bucknell attempted to rally back, but a man-up strike by Yardley with 56 seconds left was all the Bison could muster in the waning moments as Wagner escaped with an 8-7 win.
For Wagner, Leighton and Fodor combined for 3/4 of their team’s offense with Zovickian and Gyemant chipped in solo tallies in support of a nine save effort by Roach.
On the other end of the tank, Yardley (three) and Mogultay (two) posted multi-goal games with Ryckman and Gillearn accounting for the remainder of Bucknell’s offense. Goalie Adrien Touzot (Jr., Beirut, Lebanon/Brummana) stopped 19 shots in taking the loss.
The loss terminates Bucknell’s quest to become the first East Coast men’s team to win three consecutive men’s varsity titles since Navy achieved the feat from 2006-to-2008.
Bucknell – which won the inaugural MAWPC Championship in 2016 – missed out on another league title game at Navy in 2017 due to a 10-8 loss to Wagner in the semifinals of that year’s MAWPC Championship. Wagner went on to drop that year’s title game to George Washington. The Bison returned to the title game in 2018 at Fordham – but dropped a 12-11 overtime game to George Washington. In 2019, Bucknell once again reigned supreme as the team dispatched then two-time champion George Washington by a 9-4 score at home in Kinney Natatorium. Earlier this year, the Bison topped former varsity program La Salle University by an 11-3 count on March 7 back home in Lewisburg for the 2020/Winter 2021 MAWPC crown.
| 1st Q | 2nd Q | 3rd Q |
4th Q | – | FINAL | |
| Wagner College |
0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | – | 8 |
| Bucknell University | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | – | 7 |
| Bucknell Goals: | Josh Yardley (3); Hasan Mogultay (2); Matt Ryckman; Shay Gillearn | |||||
| Wagner Goals: | Jack Leighton (3); Oliver Fodor (3); Ben Zovickian; Zsombor Gyemant | |||||
| Saves: | Bucknell – Adrien Touzot (19) ; Wagner – Kevin Roach (9) | |||||
| Exclusions: | Bucknell – 7 ; Wagner -16 | |||||
| Advantage Opportunities: | Bucknell – 3-for-16 ; Wagner – 3-for-7 | |||||
| Sprints: | Bucknell – 0-for-4 ; Wagner – 4-for-4 | |||||
| Cards/Misconducts: | YC – Wagner (Head coach Ciaran Wolohan, 3:25 left in 3rd Q) | |||||
| Officials: | Alex Stankevicth; Connor Roberson | |||||
