PROVIDENCE, RI - The Iona College men's water polo team advanced to the fifth place game of the 2012 CWPA Northern Division Championship Saturday with a 11-4 victory over Connecticut College in its second game of the day. Earlier in the day, the Gaels fell to MIT 12-11 in three overtimes.
Against Connecticut College, the Gaels were able to jump out to a 1-0 lead off a goal by junior
Matthew Stelnicki. After the Camels tied the game, Iona closed the quarter on a 2-0 run off goals from sophomores
Ian Thompson and
Jake Lloyd.
In the second quarter, Iona got a goal from junior
Sean Davis to take a three goal lead. After a Conn College goal cut the Iona lead to two, Lloyd scored once more to put the Gaels ahead 5-2 at the half.
Davis opened the third with a goal as the Gaels outscored the opposition 3-0 in the quarter with Lloyd and sophomore
James Ramaley contributing the other tallies.
A pair of goals by Thompson opened the fourth quarter to give Iona an eight goal lead at 10-2. The Camels would score two goals in a row before a goal by freshman
Zach Presto with 26 seconds left wrapped up the contest for the Maroon & Gold. In net, junior
Stefen Hill made nine saves while freshman
Matt McCrudden made two saves in the fourth.
Against the Engineers, Iona held a 2-1 lead after the first quarter, with goals scored by Lloyd and junior
Lee Stiles.
After MIT evened the score at two midway through the second, Iona went on a 2-0 run on goals by Stiles and senior
Kristian Bocage. MIT would score three unanswered goals to take a 5-4 lead to end the second quarter.
Lloyd tied the game with his second goal of the game before MIT ended the third frame with another 3-0 scoring run.
In the fourth, the Gaels clawed back slowly, getting goals by Davis and Lloyd to cut the lead to one at 8-7. A goal by Thompson with eight seconds remaining gave evened the game at eight and sent the game into overtime.
Ory Tasman of MIT opened the first overtime with his sixth goal of the day, giving the Engineers a one goal lead before Thompson evened the contest less than 20 seconds later. Tasman scored once again before Stiles evened the contest in the final minute of the first overtime.
Kale Rogers of MIT scored with 2:37 left in the second overtime to push away 11-10 before Lloyd evened the score with 2:19 remaining. Neither team could score a gamewinner in the final two minutes, sending the game into sudden death.
With 1:01 remaining, Rogers netted the golden goal for the Engineers. Iona will take on Fordham tomorrow morning at 9:00 am.
