California Baptist University
Occidental
Friday Night Lights
9/29/2012 4:40:00 AM | Men's Water Polo
RIVERSIDE, Calif. --- Day one of the 2012 Lancer Invite started with a splash, as No. 18 California Baptist University defeated each of its two opponents, including No. 20 Concordia.
In their first game of the invite, the Lancers squared off against Occidental College, defeating the Tigers 21-9.
The Lancers were led by strong frontcourt defense and smart play by goalkeeper Dylan Vrooman. CBU did not allow more than four goals in any quarter, while they scored up to eight goals in one quarter.
The lancers led 10-5 at halftime, and never looked back, cruising to a 12 goal victory.
On their way to scoring 21 goals, the Lancers got at least one goal from nine different players. David Ring and Chris Vanjoff led the way with four goals each. David Rodriguez scored three and Kellan Falconieri, Scott Gleason, Robert Nichols and Keith Jizmejian all tallied two.
The only negative to CBU's performance in game one was their conversion of only one out of five 6-on-5 chances.
After watching three games, the Lancers got back in action with their night game against No. 20 Concordia. 248 fans were in attendance to watch CBU dismantle the Eagles, when the lights shined brightest, on the way to a 15-10 victory.
"I'm very happy, any time that you can get 15 goals against Concordia it means that offensively we were off the charts today," said head coach Rick Rowland.
The offense was helped immensely by the Lancers leading goal scorer, Vanjoff, who ended with four goals in the game and eight on the day. Matt Puig and Jizmejian added three of their own as the Lancers got goals from eight different players in game two.
"Vanjoff, Jizmejian and Puig carried a lot of the weight there, but our goalie and our defense is what really did it for us along the way," said Rowland.
Goalkeeper Austen Ramer led the way for the defense, picking up 11 saves and two steals in the game.
"Backline defense is most important, Ramer is the quarterback of our team, and he played off the charts today," said Rowland.
CBU was able to get off to a quick start that helped them sustain the lead and the win later in the game. They led 8-5 at halftime, led by three goals from Vanjoff and four saves from Ramer.
"I am very happy with the wins today, one of the key stats from game two is fifteen team steals," said Rowland. "That is huge, that means we got up the court a lot and set up transitions and drew ejections."
The Lancers return to play tomorrow at day two of the Lancer invite at the Lancer Aquatic Center.
They will face La Verne at 12:15 p.m. La Verne is coming off an upset victory against a ranked opponent, Santa Clara.
"We have to play smart, we are going to have to take care of their shooters, they have some really heavy shooters that can put the ball in the cage if you don't respect them."
The Lancers will also face Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the final game of the Lancer Invite at 5:15 p.m.
