Oct. 24, 2010
Bronx, N.Y. -
The Fordham University water polo squad had a busy day on Sunday, playing two matches and winning both. The Rams opened the day with a 9-7 win over Mercyhurst and then closed out the day with an 11-9 win over Gannon in the Col. Francis B. Messmore Aquatics Center.
With the wins, the Rams even their record at 13-13.
In other games in the Messmore Aquatics Center today Iona defeated Gannon, 11-10, and Mercyhurst, 13-12.
In the Fordham-Mercyhurst matchup, the Lakers struck first, scoring just 14 seconds into the game before Andrew McKernin tied the game 26 seconds later for Fordham.
A Josh Rodriguez goal 12 seconds after the McKernin tally was the first of three straight goals for Mercyhurst as the Lakers built a 4-1 lead three minutes into the game. An Ali Arat tally with 3:39 left in the first cut the Fordham deficit to two, 4-2, but Kane Ashton answered for Mercyhurst 45 seconds later with an advantage goal. The Rams closed out the period with goals from Arat and Mikey Edwards over the final 1:37 to trail by one, 5-4, at the end of the first.
Arat scored his third goal of the game 1:50 into the second to knot the game at five and the game stayed 5-5 until William Page scored for Mercyhurst with 2:23 left in the half. A Ryan Hultman goal 31 seconds later retied the game and game remained tied into the intermission.
There was no scoring in the third quarter and Fordham finally took the lead on a goal from Martin de Jong with 5:35 remaining. Less than a minute later Daniel Muñoz gave the Rams a two-goal lead with his first score of the game before Brett Luehmann pulled the Lakers to within one, 8-7, with 4:28 left. Victor Bautista Medina scored the final goal of the game with 2:53 left to put the Rams up two and Fordham held on for the win.
Arat led the way against Mercyhurst with three goals, one assist and three steals while Muñoz and Bautista Medina each had a goal and two assists and Edwards finished with four steals. In net, Christian Flessner made five saves.
In the Gannon game it was the Rams who scored first as Edwards scored 28 second into the game for a 1-0 lead. The Golden Knights answered with a Gio Martino score a minute later but the Rams would close out the quarter with three unanswered tallies, one each from Edwards, Hultman and Bautista Medina, to lead 4-1 after one.
An Arat goal 17 seconds into the second quarter bumped the Fordham lead to 5-1 and de Jong put the Rams up 6-1 with his first goal of the game with 4:19 left in the half. A tally from Greg Naranjo just before the buzzer pulled Gannon to within four, 6-2, at the break.
Goals from Arat and Jakob Muller in a 46 second span early in the third quarter gave the Rams an 8-2 lead but the Golden Knights responded with an advantage goal from Naranjo and one from Rob Bullion to make it an 8-4 game with 2:48 remaining.
de Jong answered the Bullion goal with one of his own 17 seconds later to give the Rams a 9-4 lead but Gannon used goals from Naranjo and Phil Myrick over the final 49 seconds to cut the deficit to three, 9-6, at the end of the third.
The Rams opened the fourth by extending the lead to 11-6 on a pair of Hultman goals, the first 30 seconds into the quarter and the second with 5:09 left, but an advantage score from Naranjo with 4:37 left was the first of three straight for the Golden Knights over the next three minutes to make it an 11-9 game but that was as close as they would get.
Hultman led the Rams against Gannon with three goals and one assist while de Jong finished with two goals and two assists and Edwards and Arat each registered a pair of goals with Arat adding two steals. Flessner recorded six saves in the Fordham net.
The Rams will next be in action on Wednesday night, October 27th, as they host Iona College in the Messmore Aquatics Center in a Northern Division game at 7:30 p.m.
