PRINCETON, NJ – After four first-half ties, Iona men's water polo fell to Wagner in a rocky back-and-forth contest. The Gaels allowed five straight Seahawk goals, then mounted a 4-0 second-half rally to pull within one, but fell short by a 13-9 final. Friday's match is the first of three this weekend at the Princeton Invitational hosted by Princeton University.
GAME SUMMARY
Sophomore
German Rodriguez lead the Gaels with three goals, while junior
Brett Hofer had two scores. Senior
Quinn Lloyd, sophomore
Michael Feeley, freshman
Lester Machado, freshman
Mohamed Refaat made one goal each. The Gaels had six assists.
In goal, senior
Jorge Andres Torres had seven saves on 27 Wagner shots.
On defense, the Maroon & Gold made three steals, all by Machado, and blocked seven shots with two by senior Phil Wachowski. Iona drew 11 Wagner exclusions with three by Hofer and junior
Andrew Brozovic. The Maroon & Gold were ejected three times. The Gaels scored on seven of 12 man-up chances, and the Seahawks did not score on their one man-up chance. Iona turned the ball over 14 times.
On the Gaels first possession with 29 seconds gone in the match, Rodriguez put Iona on the board first, but Wagner answered 1:34 later for a one-all tie. Rodriguez's second score with 5:14 left put the Gaels back up one. The Seahawks responded again to knot the game at two at the 3:49 mark. Twenty-two ticks later, Iona retook a one-goal edge on Machado's tally. Wagner's two straight goals then gave the Seahawks a 4-3 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Just 1:22 into the second quarter, Hofer capitalized on a 6-5 advantage on Lloyd's assist to tie the game at 4-4. With five consecutive scores, the Seahawks built a 9-4 lead until Hofer's second 6-on-5 goal trimmed Wagner's edge before intermission.
The Iona rally continued into the third period with Lloyd scoring on the Gaels first second-half possession. Feely scored on a man-up chance with 5:55 left, followed by Refaat 1:44 later, as Iona trimmed Wagner's lead to one 9-8 with 3:11 left in the third period. Wagner ended the run with 44 ticks left in the third. The Seahawks led 10-8 heading into the final quarter.
Wagner continued a four goal scoring run into the fourth quarter to mount a 13-8 lead. The Gaels failed to score until Rodriguez's third goal with 29 seconds remaining in regulation.
COACHES THOUGHT
Despite noting his squad's improvement over last weekend's 1-3 performance, Iona head coach
Brian Kelly was disappointed that his team could not play two consistent halves.
"It's a tale of two halves," Kelly said. "We played much better team defense in the second half and got ourselves back into the game. We battled back and made it a close game late in the third. We missed so many wide-open shots which would have given us a chance to win. Overall, we played better than the previous weekend."
UP NEXT
On Saturday Sept. 14, the Gaels have rematches from last Sunday against Navy at 8 a.m., and Johns Hopkins at 3:30 p.m. All games are taking place at Denunzio pool.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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