California Baptist University
UC San Diego
CBU Nearly Upsets UCSD
11/18/2017 7:20:00 PM | Men's Water Polo
LA JOLLA, Calif. — For the third year in a row, California Baptist University finished two goals shy of advancing to the Western Water Polo Association Championship game. The 17th-ranked and third-seeded Lancers fell just short of the upset against 12th-ranked and second-seeded host UC San Diego, 11-9.
CBU (21-13) faces Air Force in the third-place game tomorrow at 11:20 a.m.
Jonny Lotero (three drawn ejections), Joseph Galgani (assist) and Luke Schuler (drawn ejection, steal) each scored two goals. Kyle Johnson tallied a goal and assist, while Ryan Sargis has two assists, as well. Tanner Shore added an assist and two steals, as well.
Goalie Gabe Thorne also had eight saves and four steals to keep CBU in it until the end.
The Lancers came out and took a 2-1 lead in the first quarter on goals from Johnson and Thomas Henline. The Tritons answered back and won the second quarter on a 4-1 run, but Lotero scored in the final second of the first half to keep CBU within two of UCSD, 5-3.
The Tritons ran their lead 7-3, but consecutive goals from Galgani and Schuler cut the deficit to two, 7-5, with 2:31 left in the third.
UCSD scored the next two goals to increase its advantage to 9-5 with 7:20 left in regulation. Lotero scores 13 seconds later and Christian Britton broke through at the 5:00 mark to make it 9-7.
Schuler and Galgani scored back-to-back in the final minute to make it a 10-9 game, but UCSD secured the result with a goal with 17 seconds remaining.
