Lancers Come Back for Two Top-20 Wins

Saturday, October 27

Riverside, Calif.

12:00 PM

California Baptist University

Santa Clara

Photo by: Andrew Shortall

Lancers Come Back for Two Top-20 Wins

10/27/2018 9:00:00 PM | Men's Water Polo

By: Andrew Shortall, Asst. Sports Information Director

SANTA CLARA BOX SCORE

POMONA-PITZER BOX SCORE

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – California Baptist University defeated two top-20 ranked teams in comeback fashion on Saturday. Tanner Shore played a big role in both one-goal wins over 15^th-ranked Santa Clara, 13-12, and No. 19 Pomona-Pitzer, 16-15.

CBU improves to 19-10 and 3-2 in the Western Water Polo Association with the conference win over Santa Clara. The Broncos fall to 10-10, 2-3 in the WWPA and PPU drops to 17-8. The Lancers end conference play with two home games next week with Concordia Thursday at 6 p.m. and Air Force Saturday at noon for Senior Day.

"It was a big character day today, we were down and had to come back in the first game, and then in the second game we gave up a lead and had to come back," Coach Kevin Rosa said. "One-goal wins are nice, we have quite a few of those this year. It shows we can compete and execute in the fourth quarter."

Shore finished with five goals, two assists and three steals on the day and seemed to have a big goal whenever the Lancers needed it. Kyle Johnson and Dominick Nevarez both had five goals on the day, as well.

It took overtime for CBU to defeat Santa Clara after the Broncos held about a three-goal lead most of the game and were up 11-8 with 4:57 to play. Johnson and Zach Lowery narrowed the gap, with consecutive goals, to make it 11-10 with 1:30 left in regulation.

SCU attempted to run out the clock, but the Lancers were given one last shot with six seconds remaining. CBU's play out of the timeout did not go as planned, but Shore cracked the cage to tie the game at 11-11 with one second left.

Shore scored the eventual game-winner in the second overtime session, as well.

"Tanner has been gaining momentum all year long," Rosa said. "This is what you expect out of Tanner, in crunch time in his senior year, you expect him to get it done and he did today."

Johnson had three goals, an assist and two drawn ejections against Santa Clara, which included three assists and two goals from Nevarez. Hunter Barnett and Logan Mena had two goals each in the win, while Lowery added three assists and a goal.

"We have been preparing for Santa Clara, they're a good team. They got up on us, but we showed some character clawing back and clawing back. We didn't panic," Rosa said. "It was a tough game that you expect from the WWPA this year, we have five teams in the top-20 [rankings] and four in the top-15, so we are a strong conference."

CBU led most of the way in the nightcap with Pomona-Pitzer, but a 7-3 run gave the Sagehens a 15-14 lead with 51 seconds left. The Lancers drew an ejection on the ensuing possession and Shore scored his second goal in a row on the power play to tie things up at 15-15 with 30 seconds left.

Pomona-Pitzer's attempt at a response went wrong, as it committed an offensive foul and put the Lancers right on the counter attack. The ball worked its way over to Nevarez, who pumped and beat the goalie nearpost for the winner with four seconds left.

Nevarez finished the game with a hat trick and also had two assists and two steals. Johnson, Ryan Sargis, Shore, Riley Bumgardner and Lowery all scored twice in the game, as well, while Gabe Thorne had 15 saves in the cage.