CBU Off to Best Start Since 2011

Saturday, September 2

Providence, R.I.

6:50 AM

California Baptist University

Wagner

Photo by: Andrew Shortall

CBU Off to Best Start Since 2011

9/2/2017 6:15:00 PM | Men's Water Polo

By: Andrew Shortall, Asst. Sports Information Director

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – It was a busy opening day for California Baptist University, as it opened its season with three games at the Bruno Fall Classic on Saturday. The 16^th-ranked Lancers got off to their best start since 2011, winning their first two games against Wagner and McKendree on respective scores of 13-6 and 26-2 before dropping the finale to host and No. 15 Brown, 9-6.

Dominick Nevarez led the offense for CBU, with a team-high 10 points and eight goals, along with two assists. Jonny Lotero followed with six goals and two assists, while Christian Britton and Joseph Galgani both had four goals for the Lancers. Three different goalies got starts for CBU on the day, as well, as Coach Kevin Rosa tested his depth up and down his roster.

"It could be like that all season long where we use different guys in goal at different times," Rosa said. "It will be a battle and that's what we are going to need. We need to play with more intensity, we need to pick up the intensity in practice and play at a higher pace."

The Lancers play one more game tomorrow against 14^th-ranked Bucknell at 11 a.m. PST before returning to California for two more games Sept. 9 against La Verne and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

Wagner was CBU's first opponent of the season, and Lotero and Nevarez combined to score nine of CBU's 13 goals in the season-opening win over Wagner. Gabe Thorne got the start in goal and the great result, as the true freshman posted 13 saves and an assist in his collegiate debut.

The Lancers actually trailed at the end of the first quarter, 3-2, despite Lotero and Nevarez scoring the first two goals of the contest. CBU then rattled off the first three goals of the second half in just two minutes, 40 seconds to take a 5-3 upper hand.

Nevarez found the back of the cage twice and Lotero added one more tally. The Seahawks cut into the run momentarily to make it 5-4, but Lotero answered back and Britton scored his first of two goals with six seconds to go to make it a 7-4 CBU lead at halftime.

"We played really well after the first quarter and a slightly slow start, we did the things we were supposed to over the last three quarters," Rosa said.

Wagner was shutout in the third quarter, as goals from Lotero and Kyle Johnson increased the Lancer lead to 9-4 and all but ensured the result going into the fourth quarter. Nevarez, Lotero and Britton each scored one more time in the final eight minutes, and Luke Schuler found his first goal of the season, as well, to cap off the scoring.

CBU kept momentum going into its second game against McKendree and scored 15 goals in the first 16 minutes to lead 15-0 at halftime. Nevarez, Ryan Sargis and true freshmen Galgani and Zach Lowery scored hat tricks in the game. Nine other players finished with at least three points in the game for CBU.

Kyle Christian had five points, with all five coming on assists. Johnson (two goals, two assists); Logan Mena (two goals, two assists) both had four points, while Matthew Diacono (two goals, one assists); Royce Daniel Laverne (two assists, one goal); Lotero (one goal, two assists); Tanner Shore (two assists, one goal); Luke Schuler (two goals, one assist) and Tommy Lotero (three assists) all had three.

It was pretty impressive for Tommy Lotero, considering the true freshman played all 32 minutes in the cage, and added seven saves and two steals to his box score.

"McKendree is still a new program, and we were able to get the things done we needed to do against them," Rosa said. "A bunch of guys got playing time and Tommy had a great game only giving up two goals."

Although it wasn't the result they wanted, the Lancers overcame a lot in their final game of the day against Brown. The Bears took a 4-1 lead 56 seconds into the second quarter.

"They came out well, but then we battled really well and scored the next five," Rosa said of the Brown game.

CBU's five-straight goals came over a 10-plus minute span, thanks to two goals from Shore and one each from Rogers and Galgani, for a 6-4 lead with 4:05 remaining in the third quarter.

Brown escaped with the victory, though, when it ended the game on a 5-0 run of its own. Shore scored twice and assisted on another goal, while forcing two turnovers in the game. Thomas Henline and Nevarez had a goal and assist in the game, as well.