CBU Steals Game Away from CMS

Friday, September 23

Riverside, Calif.

3:00 PM

California Baptist University

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps

Photo by: Jacob Gonzalez

CBU Steals Game Away from CMS

9/23/2016 5:23:00 PM | Men's Water Polo

By: Andrew Shortall, Asst. Sports Information Director

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Two days after arguably its biggest win in program history, California Baptist University needed to avoid a letdown and impress its home fans against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Friday.

A dominant showing in the second quarter proved plenty enough for CBU, as it defeated the Stags, who are ranked second in NCAA Division III, by a score of 18-9.

CBU has won two-straight after knocking off eighth-ranked UC Irvine on Wednesday, 9-8, which stands as the highest-ranked Division I team the program has ever defeated. The NCAA's 16^th-ranked Lancers improve to 5-6 this season and CMS falls to 3-8.

"It was very important to build off that and keep the momentum going," center defender Thomas Henline said. "We didn't want Wednesday to be an isolated incident, we wanted to keep the ball rolling."

Three different Lancers: Henline, Brent Teraoka and Dominick Nevarez notched hat tricks in the game, while Elad Gunya and Teddy Forte each scored twice in the game.

"We've had balance all year long, and that's what makes us dangerous – you can't just key in on one guy," Coach Kevin Rosa said. "Our system is designed that way, the ball doesn't go to just one person, if it finds you and you're open, make the play and put it in the cage."

Still, it was the Lancers' defense that set the tone in the game and led to easy offense. CBU forced 14 turnovers and held CMS to 30 percent on powerplays (3-for-10) and to a .360 shooting percentage overall (9-for-25), while rotating in its whole lineup.

Meanwhile, the Lancers were 3-for-4 on their own man-advantages and shot .500 (18-for-36) in the game, with many of their goals coming off easy looks on the counterattack.

"That's what we want," Rosa said. "We want those easy goals coming off solid defense that lead into odd-man rushes on the counterattack."

CBU scored the first three goals within the first five minutes of the game. Gunya got it going 1:35 in on a powerplay, and even-strength scores from Logan Mena and Caleb Rogers put the Lancers up 3-0 with 3:11 left in the first.

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps was not going to go quietly and rattled off two goals in the final two minutes of the quarter to make it a one-goal affair, 3-2. In need of a response, CBU put the game away in the second quarter by winning those eight minutes, 7-1, for a 10-3 advantage at halftime.

"We started a little slow, but we really picked up the speed in the second quarter and people got to see what we want to do," Rosa said. "We got aggressive up on that counterattack, and it was a really good quarter for us."

Another 3-0 run started the second quarter for the Lancers. Henline scored 56 seconds in off an assist from Forte. Forte scored about a minute later before Royce Daniel Laverne capped the run with 5:28 remaining in the half.

Kyle Rasmussen, Teraoka, Nevarez and Henline all scored to end the quarter on a 4-0 CBU charge.

Forte finished with two goals, two assists and three steals. Rogers assisted on three goals, forced three turnovers and scored once himself. Tanner Shore notched two helpers on offense and forced a steal, as well.

"I felt like we did a good job just anticipating and reacting when the ball turned over," Henline said. "It allowed us to get up on the counterattack a lot, which led to a lot of scoring."

Friday started a six-game homestand for CBU. It will host the Lancer Invite next week, hosting Citrus (2:30 p.m.) and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (7:30 p.m.) again on Friday, and then Whittier (10:40 a.m.) and Concordia (2:40 p.m.) on Saturday.