NEW ROCHELLE, NY - In a triple-overtime match featuring nine ties and six lead changes, the Iona men's water polo team fell to number-twenty-ranked St. Francis (Brooklyn) College 12-11 on Senior Night in a Northeast Water Polo Conference match tonight at Hynes Pool.
Junior Marc Stauble led the Gaels (9-17, 1-6 NEWPC) with six goals. Senior co-captain Dan Fleck, junior Patrick Judge, junior Zach Roper, freshman Quinn Lloyd, freshman Cullen Seipp had one score each.
In goal, freshman Jorge Andres Torres had 20 saves on 46 Terrier (11-10, 6-5 NEWPC) shots, made two steals and one of the Gaels' seven assists. On defense, Iona made ten steals and four blocks. The Gaels drew five Terrier kickouts, while being ejected nine times. Iona turned the ball over 26 times. The Gaels made three of 13 man-up opportunities, while the Terriers made three of nine.
After Stauble won the opening swim-off, the visitors scored on their first possession with 42 seconds gone in the match. Both teams failed to score until Lloyd put Iona on the board with 3:54 on the clock, followed by Rothman 20 ticks later to give the Gaels a 2-1 edge. With 1:34 left in the first quarter, the Terriers retied the score at two. St. Francis needed only 39 seconds to regain the lead 3-2 going into the second quarter.
Thirty-nine seconds into the second period, low skip shot upped the Terrier lead to 4-2, then Stauble answered to pull Iona within one 4-3 with 7:08 left to intermission. Torres' pool-length assist set up Seipp to tie the game for the third time at four with 4:26 to go. After on its next possession, St. Francis went back up 5-4, but Judge scored on a 6-5 advantage to knot the match at five with 2:23 left. Iona also capitalized on its next man-up chance, as Stauble gave the Gaels a 6-5 lead with 36 ticks to halftime, as home squad outscored the visitors 4-2 in the second period. Torres made seven saves in the first half.
With tough defense at both ends of the pool, the Terriers finally scored with 5:18 left in the third quarter to tie the match at six. With 1:54 to go, St. Francis regained the advantage 7-6 for the match's fourth lead change. On the Gaels final possession of the third quarter with 20 seconds remaining, Hudson's assist set up Roper to tie the match for the sixth time 7-7 going into the final period.
Just 40 seconds into the fourth, Stauble's third score put Iona back up 8-7, but St. Francis took advantage of a man-up change to tie the game at eight with 5:14 to go. The Terriers regained the lead 9-8 on a breakaway 1:52 later, then went up two 10-8 on their next possession. Cheered on by the standing Iona faithful, Stauble fired his fourth goal to narrow the St. Francis lead to 10-9 with 2:01 on the clock. With only 40 seconds left in regulation, Hudson fed Stauble for his fifth score to tie the match at ten and force overtime.
With 11.7 seconds left in first overtime, Stauble gave Iona the lead back 11-10 with his sixth goal. Iona held onto the lead until the final 10 seconds in the second overtime, when St. Francis scored on an errant Torres pass after a point-blank save. That forced a third overtime with the match knotted at eleven. The Terriers lobbed in the winning goal 1:43 into a third sudden-death overtime.
While pleased with his squad's three-overtime effort, Iona head coach Brian Kelly was obviously disappointed with the outcome.
“The guys fought hard,” Kelly said. “Twenty-six turnovers were the story of our game. When you have the ball with a full shot clock with 32 seconds to go, you have to find a way to win.”
In a pre-game ceremony, the Gaels honored their three graduating seniors – Dan Fleck, Hudson Grieve, and Anthony Zdanavicius.
The Gaels wind up their regular season with a two-day road trip this weekend. On Saturday, they face Brown University in Providence at 7 p.m., and on Sunday they take on MIT at 10 a.m., and Harvard at 2 p.m., at their respective Cambridge campuses.
