LA JOLLA, Calif. - Junior Daniel Garcia tallied six scores on Saturday as the No. 14 UC San Diego men's water polo team split their opening games at the Triton Invitational Saturday, defeating Redlands 14-4 and dropping an 11-8 decision at the hands of No. 9 Long Beach State.
"Clearly mixed reviews for the day," UCSD head coach Denny Harper said. "I was pleased that we took care of business with handling Redlands, a conference opponent we won't see again until the WWPA Championships. The Long Beach State game was a little different. We got manhandled a little too much. It's early in the season and we'll get a handle on it but we're going to play a lot of physical teams and we've got to be able to handle it better."
In the game against Redlands, Garcia (San Dimas, Calif.) tossed in three of his goals in the first quarter as the Tritons pulled out to a 5-1 lead after the opening eight minutes. The UCSD offense picked up right where it left off to begin the next quarter. Junior Steven Donohoe (Upland, Calif.) converted on a five-meter penalty shot at 7:43. Roughly a minute later, senior Jeff Hunt (San Diego, Calif.) received a cross-pool pass from senior A.J. Kotanjian and fired a shot past the Bulldogs' goalkeeper. Two possessions after Hunt's score, Kotanjian rocketed a blast from the top of the offensive formation to extend UCSD's lead to 8-1.
With the score 10-2 at the midway point, the two squads traded scores in the first half of the third quarter. Donohoe added another goal at the 1:54 mark after getting a good look at the goal in front of the defender at the two-meter position. Senior Sidd Menon (Palo Alto, Calif.) used his speed on the next possession to work in front of the Redlands' defense and easily shoot it past the opposing keeper, pushing the score to 14-4.
Neither squad scored a goal in the fourth quarter as reserves picked up experience with the victory theoretically in hand.
The Tritons challenged No. 9 Long Beach State later Saturday afternoon. UCSD took a 1-0 lead early in the first quarter after Donohoe fired in a shot off of a five-meter penalty. The 49ers rebounded to go on a 3-0 run, with the second and third scores coming off breakaways. The Tritons battled back though with two scores in the final two minutes of the second quarter, the first on a five-meter penalty shot from junior Peter Gresham (Solana Beach, Calif.) and the second on a backhander by Garcia facing away from the net, cutting the LBSU advantage to 4-3 heading into intermission.
The second half started almost identically as the first, with Donohoe tossing in a five-meter at the 6:34 mark. A few possessions later, the ball was wrestled away from Kotanjian on a breakaway and LBSU turned around and started another 3-0 run to take a 7-4 lead. At the start of the fourth quarter the two squads traded scores before the 49ers pulled away for an 11-7 advantage. A loft shot from Hunt into the right of the net cut the lead to 11-8 at 2:56 but that's where the score stood at the final buzzer.
The Tritons (1-1) will challenge No. 11 UC Davis (1-1) on Sunday at 8 a.m. in the Canyonview West Pool.
