LEWISBURG, Pa. — Oliver Fodor (Fr., Budapest, Hungary/Szent Istvan Gimnazium) scored six times to earn Player of the Game recognition as Wagner College built a 9-4 lead by halftime and never looked back in taking down Division III No. 4-ranked Johns Hopkins University, 14-11, in the 2019 Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) Championship Fifth Place game.
Competing at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium, the Seahawks (8-23, 4-8 MAWPC-East) pulled ahead of the Blue Jays (11-21, 3-9 MAWPC-East) and never trailed the rest of the way in clinching Fifth Place in the eight-team championship field.
It marks the second Fifth Place finish in the four-year history of the MAWPC Championship for Wagner as the team previously took Fifth (2016, at Bucknell), Second (2017, at the United States Naval Academy) and Third (2018 at Fordham University) Place.
Fodor factored throughout the contest for Wagner as he opened the scoring by finding the back of the cage 22 seconds into the game (7:38) to put the Seahawks into the lead to stay. Matthew Miller (Sr., San Ramon, Calif./California) followed with man-up (5:59) and even-strength (5:21) scores to build the margin to 3-0 prior to Jayden Kunwar (So., Woodside, Calif./Menlo) pumping in a penalty shot at 5:10 to put Hopkins on the board and shrink the Blue Jays’ deficit to 3-1.
Lachlan Trabinger (Sr., Canberra, Australia/St. Edmunds College) got the goal back for Wagner at 4:46, but Jake Pearson (So., Key Biscayne, Fla./Ransom Everglades) and Olin Shipstead (Jr., Los Angeles, Calif./Agoura) trimmed Wagner’s lead down to 4-3 as the duo deposited strikes at 3:51 and 2:08, respectively.
Fodor closed out the quarter by converting a six-on-five opportunity with 1:46 remaining to make it 5-3 and begin a four-goal surge by Wagner which carried over into the second quarter.
Shaked Yacoby (Fr., Hod HaSharon, Israel/Mosenson Hod HaSharon) and Miller continued to run at 5:06 and 3:47 in the second quarter prior to Yacoby snapping in a man-up shot at 3:16 to inflate the Seahawks’ lead to 8-3.
Shipstead cooled off Wagner by burying a man-up score for the Blue Jays (2:38), but Fodor concluded the first half and a hat-trick by jamming home a score with 26 seconds left for a 9-4 Wagner lead at the break.
Kunwar collected another penalty shot goal 29 seconds into the third quarter (7:31) to move JHU within four at 9-5, but Fodor struck again with a natural marker at 7:06 to make it 10-5.
Shipstead (4:27) and Fodor (3:18) traded tallies prior to Fodor (1:18, man-up) and Vuk Bulajic (So., Belgrade, Serbia/King’s College) (44 seconds, even-strength) capping off the third quarter to give the Seahawks a 13-6 lead heading into the final eight minutes of regulation.
Miller notched his fourth goal at the 4:55 mark to push the lead to 14-6 before Stephen Schmidt (Jr., Orinda, Calif./Miramonte) (4:00, man-up), Shipstead (3:02, even-strength), Chris Freese (Fr., Bellevue, Wash./Interlake) (2:14, even-strength), Kamran Eslami (Fr., Mission Viejo, Calif./Capistrano Valley) (1:00, even-strength) and Emerson Sullivan (So., San Anselmo, Calif./Sir Francis Drake) (27 seconds, even-strength) closed out the game with a 5-0 run for the 14-11 final score.
For Wagner, Fodor (six), Miller (four) and Yacoby (two) each posted multi-goal games, while Trabinger and Bulajic both found the back of the cage once. In net, Ethan Zirh (Fr., Sydney, Australia/Castle Hill) collected nine saves and the win.
Shipstead led the way for Johns Hopkins with four goals. Kunwar tacked on a pair with Freese, Sullivan, Eslami, Schmidt and Pearson putting away solo strikes. Max Fleming (Jr., Orinda, Calif./Miramonte) took the loss with eight saves.
Overall, Hopkins’ Sixth Place finish equals the team’s performance at the 2017 MAWPC Championship hosted by Navy as the Blue Jays previously placed Fourth (2016), Fifth (2018) and Sixth (2017) in the three prior Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference title tournaments.
Johns Hopkins will continue its season in two weekends as the Division III Eastern Champion Blue Jays and runner-up Engineers of Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) member the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will take on Whittier College and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps of the Southern Calfornia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) at the inaugural Division III Collegiate Water Polo National Championship sponsored by USA Water Polo on December 7-8. A site will be determined following the conclusion of the SCIAC Championship game.
| 1st Q | 2nd Q | 3rd Q | 4th Q | – | FINAL | |
| Division III No. 4 Johns Hopkins University | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | – | 11 |
| Wagner College | 5 | 4 | 4 | 1 | – | 14 |
| Wagner Goals: | Oliver Fodor (6); Matthew Miller (4); Shaked Yacoby (2); Lachlan Trabinger; Vuk Bulajic | |||||
| JHU Goals: | Olin Shipstead (4); Jayden Kunwar (2); Chris Freese; Emerson Sullivan; Kamran Eslami; Stephen Schmidt; Jake Pearson | |||||
| Saves: | Wagner – Ethan Zirh (9) ; JHU – Max Fleming (8) | |||||
| Exclusions: | Wagner – 16 ; JHU – 7 | |||||
| Advantage Opportunities: | Wagner – 4-for-7 ; JHU – 4-for-16 | |||||
| Sprints: | Wagner – 2-for-4 (1st, 3rd) ; JHU – 2-for-4 (2nd, 4th) | |||||
| Cards/Misconducts: | Wagner – M (Mike Ward, nine seconds left in 4th Q) | |||||
| Officials: | Scott Voltz ; Josh Kratz | |||||
Wagner College’s Karl Lovett (#3) looks to pass as Johns Hopkins University’s John Murphy (#7) defends
Johns Hopkins University’s Chris Freese (#14) attempts to get around Wagner College’s Aaron Leighton (#12)
Johns Hopkins University’s Emerson Sullivan (#13) closes on Wagner College’s Lachlan Trabinger (#11)
