PROVIDENCE, R.I. — St. Francis College Brooklyn reeled off seven goals in the fourth quarter to overcome an 8-6 deficit at the conclusion of the third quarter to top No. 16-ranked/host Brown University in the Third Place game of the 2018 Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Championship at the Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center.
St. Francis Brooklyn (9-15, 7-3 NWPC), which previously placed Fourth in both 2016 (at Princeton University) and 2017 (at Harvard University) with losses to Princeton (18-13 L) and Brown (11-9 L), respectively, records the program’s all-time best finish in the three-year history of the NWPC Championship. Further, the team notches its best finish at the league championship tournament since placing First in the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) in 2013 before finishing Fourth (2014) and Fifth (2015) leading up to the creation of the Northeast Water Polo Conference.
Down by a pair at 8-6 to commence the fourth quarter, the Terriers got off the chain, clamped down on defense and bared their teeth on offense. 2018 NWPC Rookie of the Year erased the Bears’ lead within the first 2:13 of the final frame as he buried a man-up chance (6:38) before ripping in the equalizer with a man-up strike (5:47) to pull St. Francis even at eight-all.
From there, the Terriers terrorized the Bears (18-14, 6-4 NWPC) as Nikita Prokhin (Sr., Toronto, Canada/Silverthorn Collegiate Institute) and William Lapkin (Jr., Newport Beach, Calif./Mater Dei) racked up back-to-back natural tallies at 5:01 and 4:40, respectively, to push St. Francis Brooklyn back into the lead at 10-8. Following a misconduct for disrespect against Brown’s Spencer Carroll (Sr., Newport Beach, Calif./Mater Dei) following Lapkin’s marker, the Terriers capped off a 5-0 run when Botond Kadar (Sr., Budapest, Hungary/Csik Ferenc) lined in a shot for an 11-8 lead with exactly three minutes remaining on the clock.
Niko Bhatia (Fr., Los Altos, Calif./Menlo School) scored for Brown at 2:42 to cut the Bears’ deficit down to 11-9 and terminate the Terriers’ scoring tirade, but Bogdan Kostic (Sr., Nis, Serbia/Vorosmarty Mihaly) (2:24, even-strength) and Alexander Teplitsky (Jr., Brooklyn, N.Y./Midwood) (1:40, man-up) closed out the game with consecutive strikes for insulation in wrapping-up a 13-9 win.
For St. Francis Brooklyn, Stanic led the way with a hat-trick (three goals), while Boris Posavec (Jr., Zagreb, Croatia/Marina) and Prokhin both tossed in pairs. Teplitsky, Tadeu Rodrigues (Jr., Rio de Janeiro, Brazil/Colegio Pedro II), Lapkin and Kostic each posted single goals in support of a 16 save effort by goalie Viktor Klauzer (Jr., Szekesfehervar, Hungary/Vasvari Pal Gimnazium).
Aidan Reilly (So., Los Angeles, Calif./Loyola) scored three times for Brown with Travis Bouscaren (Sr., Cambridge, Mass./Phillips Andover Academy) notching a pair of goals. The quartet of Carroll, Matt Simko (Fr., Coral Gables, Fla./Ransom Everglades School), Galen Hu (Jr., Colleyville, Texas/Cistercian Preparatory School) and Bhatia each tacked on solo strikes. In cage, Riad Hallal (So., Coronado, Calif./Coronado) posted eight saves in taking the loss.
The third meeting of the year between the two programs following 13-12 overtime and 12-10 victories by the Terriers in regular season NWPC competition, the story of the game was scoring spurts as the Terriers started and concluded the contest with surges to take the victory.
Back-to-back goals by Posavec (7:16, 6:21) staked St. Francis Brooklyn to an early 2-0 lead. Reilly (4:58) and Carroll (3:58) answered for the Bears to even the damage at two-all, but Prokhin put across a go-ahead score with 3:18 remaining on the clock to provide the Terriers with a 3-2 lead at the conclusion of the first quarter.
A 3-0 spurt by Brown in the second quarter shifted the momentum and lead in favor of the Bears.
Bouscaren commenced the run with 5:30 until halftime by lining in a five-meter penalty shot prior to Reilly (3:28) and Hu (2:28) denting the twine with the teams at even-strength to make it 5-3 at the break.
In the third quarter, Rodrigues trimmed the Terriers’ deficit down to 5-4 (6:45), but Simko sliced in an answer at 4;25 to push the spread back to a pair at 6-4.
A man-up tally by Kadar (3:48) and a natural goal from Stanic (3:02) squared the squads at six-all before Bouscaren (58 seconds, even-strength) and Reilly (24 seconds, penalty shot) provided Brown an 8-6 lead going into the fourth quarter to set the stage for the Terriers comeback win.
Due to the loss, 2014 CWPA Champion Brown finishes in Fourth Place at the six-team NWPC Championship. It marks the Bears lowest finish at the NWPC Championship in the three-year history of the event following Second (2016) and Third (2017) Place marks.
| 1st Q | 2nd Q | 3rd Q | 4th Q | – | FINAL | |
| St. Francis College Brooklyn | 3 | 0 | 3 | 7 | – | 13 |
| Brown University | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | – | 9 |
| Brown Goals: | Aiden Reilly (3); Travis Bouscaren (2); Matt Simko; Galen Hu; Spencer Carrroll; Niko Bhatia | |||||
| SFC Goals: | Djorde Stanic (3); Boris Posavec (2); Botond Kadar (2); Nikita Prokhin (2); Alexander Teplitsky; Tadeu Rodrigues; Bodan Kostic; William Lapkin | |||||
| Saves: | Brown – Riad Hallal (8) ; SFC – Viktor Klauzer (16) | |||||
| Exclusions: | Brown – 11 ; SFC – 16 | |||||
| Advantage Opportunities: | Brown – 2-for-16 ; SFC – 3-for-11 | |||||
| Sprints: | Brown – 2-for-4 (1st, 2nd) ; SFC – 2-for-4 (3rd, 4th) | |||||
| Cards/Misconducts: | YC – SFC (Ricardo Berenguer, 5:09 left in 3rd Q); MD – Brown (Spencer Carroll, 4:40 left in 4th Q); MV – Aiden Reilly (1:00 left in 4th Q) | |||||
| Officials: | JR Perez, Michael Schofield | |||||
Brown University’s Aidan Reilly (#8)
St. Francis College Brooklyn’s Botond Kadar (#8) looks to drop off a pass as Brown University’s James Thygesen (#5) defends
St. Francis College Brooklyn’s Cody Alexander-Jones (#11)
Brown University’s Aidan Reilly (#8) defends St Francis College Brooklyn’s Cody Alexander-Jones (#11)
St Francis College’s Djorde Stanic (#6)
