COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Senior utility Chase Cockerill put away two shots in the final minutes as the 16th-ranked UC San Diego men's water polo team claimed a 10-8 victory in its semifinal matchup in the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) Championship against No. 17 Air Force, the host of the tournament, Saturday at Cadet Natatorium. The Tritons came back from two goals down at halftime and limited the Falcons to only two second-half scores.
With the win, the Tritons improve to 13-13 overall. The Falcons drop to 11-16.
UCSD's defense was stellar in the beginning as it shut out Air Force in the opening quarter. The Tritons were able to come away with the period's only score after junior driver Nick Alexander buried his shot from the right side.
Goals became more common in the second quarter as the Falcons took the lead, 2-1, after scoring on their first two possessions of the period. Redshirt freshman driver Cole Martinez found the back of the cage to tie the game after Cockerill threw him a pass from across the pool. After Alexander grabbed his second goal of the match, Air Force began to pull away as it built its biggest lead of the game, 5-3. Cockerill found Martinez for a score on a six-on-five situation as UCSD cut the margin to one. The Falcons scored with 39 seconds remaining in the period to take a 6-4 advantage at halftime.
UCSD took back the lead in the third frame after scoring three goals, one from Cockerill and two from senior two-meter Tyler Mancuso. The Triton defense shut out Air Force for most of the quarter until George Millard was able to get a power-play score for the Falcons with four seconds remaining to even the game.
Mancuso was able to score from the post position to start the final period. After a Falcon score, Cockerill put the game away with two goals.
Mancuso and Cockerill each recorded hat tricks with three scores each. Martinez and Alexander each added two. Redshirt freshman goalie Jack Turner amassed 13 saves.
Riley Thomas led Air Force with two goals.
UCSD will try to capture its 18th WWPA championship and third straight, in Sunday's final against ninth-ranked top seed UC Davis. Game time is set for 12 p.m. PT.
BOX SCORE
UCSD 1 3 3 3 - 10
AFA 0 6 1 1 - 8
Goals
UCSD: Tyler Mancuso 3, Chase Cockerill 3, Nick Alexander 2, Cole Martinez 2
AFA: Riley Thomas 2, Garrett Fisk, Jason Lee, Eric Curia, Edward Smet, Justin Harrison, George Millard
Saves
UCSD: Jack Turner 13
AFA: Max Benson 6
#TritonsRising
