Broncos open new pool with win

By Alex Moriconi

The men's water polo team hosted Air Force and Cal Baptist in their inaugural home games at Sullivan Aquatic Center Saturday in front of an estimated crowd of 200.

"It's pretty incredible having the fan base that we have and the amount of people that showed up," junior utility player Liam Farrell said. "People were sitting across the floor. There weren't even enough seats for everyone."

The crowd was not let down as the Broncos defeated Air Force 9-7 in the first match of the day. Santa Clara jumped out to a 4-2 lead, but midway through the second quarter Air Force began to step it up, scoring four unanswered goals to lead 6-2.

Senior defender Andrew Fitch quickly took to the offensive, and Air Force was called for a 5-meter foul on the breakaway.

After Jack Wall converted the penalty, the Bronco counterattack took over.

"We pushed the counterattack harder that fourth quarter and that got our offense going," Keith Wilbur said.

The Broncos kept the ball on Air Force's side for the majority of the second half and consistently pushed their counterattack. Generated by their stifling defense, Santa Clara scored four goals to regain control of the game.

With 6 minutes and 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter, the Broncos came up with two key saves at the net, which resulted in a Santa Clara breakaway goal to tie up the score.

Senior Chris Parolin put the game away in the fourth quarter with a breakaway goal. Parolin beat two Falcon defenders and the goalie on his drive toward the net, sealing the win for Santa Clara.

The Broncos encountered a late Air Force rally, but freshman goalie Michael Wishart neutralized the Falcons. Wishart continued his brilliant play as of late, recording 12 blocks in the game, including two key saves with less than 45 seconds left.

Wall scored the first goal in the new pool and had two total in the game. For the Falcons, Jack Hines scored four goals and Alex Churnside scored two in a strong showing by visiting Air Force.

In the second matchup of the day, Santa Clara faced a determined Cal Baptist team in what was a physical game right from the start. Within the first 2 minutes, Baptist was called for a 5-meter foul which was converted by Wall, who had five goals in the game and seven for the day.

Baptist's physicality was seen through their tenacious defense on 2-meter man Stephen Hobbs and their disruption of the Bronco offense in general.

Defensively, Mitchell Klipa kept the Broncos in the game by playing great defense on Baptist's 2-meter man and providing strong help defense as well.

However, the Broncos eventually lost the game 9-7.

"We put ourselves in a situation where we had to come back in the end," Wilbur said. "Our offense as a whole was not working together."

The Bronco offense, which was so diverse in their scoring during game one, sputtered in their second game with Farrell, Hobbs and Wall as the only goal scorers. Hobbs and Farrell each scored one goal.

"When we play a good game and I look at the score sheet, we'll have six, seven or eight guys with goals," Wilbur said. "Our offense as a whole was not working together."

Santa Clara will be put to the test again when they play No. 6 Loyola Marymount and No. 2 Stanford on Friday and Sunday, respectively.

Contact Alex Moriconi at mmoriconi@scu.edu