California Baptist University
Concordia
CLOSING WITH A WIN
11/7/2007 8:00:00 AM | Men's Water Polo
RIVERSIDE, Calif. ? If California Baptist hit the water Wednesday to make a statement they certainly did that against Concordia with a 15-11 win. The Lancers (23-12) easily dominated the Eagles (17-9) leading 6-1 after the first quarter and 9-2 at the half.
“This was the best first-quarter game we have had all season,” said CBU head coach Rick Rowland. “That's the way you want to end the season. We matched up well today and we were able to get everyone some playing time. The score is not indicative to the way we dominated. They made a little run at the end and we held them off, but Concordia is a talented team.”
Chris Morgan led the Lancer offense with a hat trick and also dished out a pair of assists. Alan Ogden scored a pair of goals and added two assists along with three steals. Aaron Steiger, Scott Gleason, Jason Bills and Josh Harris each scored a pair of goals while Ryan Steiger and Alex Shorts both had single goals. John Miller recorded eight saves while Zach Bowman recorded two.
CBU was fired up from the start as Morgan scored the first of his three goals less than a minute in and the Lancers were off and running. Harris gave CBU a 2-0 lead before the Eagles got on the board with a goal by Robert Matosic. Concordia's goal must have lit a fire for the Lancer offense as it proceeded to score the next four goals including two by Ogden and one each from Gleason and Morgan.
The Eagles opened the second quarter with a goal, but that sparked another CBU run with Bills, Ryan Steiger and Shorts all scoring goals. The two teams traded goals in the third as Aaron Steiger scored his two goals while Gleason added his second to give CBU at 12-5 lead at the end of the third. After some substitutions, by the Lancers, the Eagles made a run in the fourth quarter going on a 5-1 run. The Lancers held off CU down the stretch and Harris slammed the door shut on the 2007 regular season scoring with 45 seconds left.
This is not expected to be the last time the Lancers and the Eagles will meet as the two schools are seeded No. 1 and No. 2 at the upcoming national water polo invitational hosted by CBU, Nov. 16-17.
“I am sure we will see them in the finals of the national invite,” said Rowland. “We will look forward to matching up with them again. There was a little bad blood the last time we played with the overtime game. Now we have a rivalry with a team in the NAIA and that's something we haven't had before.”
The Lancers won all three meetings this year with the Eagles, but the first two were down to the wire including a sudden death overtime thriller at the Lancer Invite that was filled with controversy.
CBU will now host its annual alumni game, Saturday, at 11 a.m. and will have its senior presentations before the beginning of the game.
