Oct. 3, 2010
Bronx, N.Y. -
Behind a career-best performance from J.D. Shrewsbury, the Fordham water polo team earned a split of its two Northern Division match-ups on Sunday. The Rams dropped their first game to 19th-ranked Brown, 16-8, while defeating Connecticut College, 24-6, in the nightcap.
With the split, Fordham moves to 9-9 on the season, 3-2 in the Northern Division.
In the loss to Brown, the Bears jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first quarter before Jakob Muller pulled the Rams to within one with a tally in the final second of the period.
A Daniel Munoz goal 1:26 into the second quarter tied the game at two and the score would remained knotted until Fordham's Ali Arat scored with 1:48 remaining to give the Rams a 3-2 lead.
Just under 30 seconds later, Grant Villeneuve netted his a goal to re-tie the game at three. The Bears then used two advantage goals in the final 54 seconds from James McNamara to take a 5-3 advantage at the half.
An Alex Powell advantage goal in the first minute of the second half pulled the Rams to within one, 5-4, but the Bears would score four unanswered goals over the final 5:50 to take a commanding 9-4 lead after three quarters. McNamara scored two of the four Brown goals.
Three early fourth quarter tallies from Mikey Edwards, the first and last advantage goals, cut the Bears lead to two, 9-7, but Brown responded with four straight scores, two from Ryan Gladych, to go up 13-7 with 4:18 left.
Powell's second goal of the game cut the Fordham deficit to five, 13-8, with 2:50 remaining but Brown scored three times over the final 2;10 for the 16-8 final.
Edwards led the Rams with three goals while Powell added two goals, two steals and one assist and Ali Arat finished with a goal and three steals. In goal, Flessner recorded six saves for Fordham.
In the second match of the day, J.D. Shrewsbury posted career-highs with five assists and seven points, while Arat tied a career-high with seven goals, as the Rams topped Connecticut College by 18.
The Camels netted the opening goal of the game for the first lead, but it was short lived as Martin de Jong scored a man-advantage goal to tie the game, with Arat scoring the next three goals, giving Fordham the lead.
After leading by four after one quarter, the Rams outscored the Camels, 9-0, in the second quarter to pull out to a 16-3 lead at the half and never looked back. Arat and Edwards each had two scores in the second quarter.
Besides Arat's seven goals, Edwards and Powell each netted three, while Shrews had two goals and five assists. Daniel Barron and Cashel Barnett each had two goals and an assist with Barron adding a team-high three steals. Ryan Hultman, de Jong, Jake Bakas, Muller, and Victor Bautista Medina rounded out the Fordham scoring with one goal each.
In net, Eric Mullery played all four quarters, making 13 saves to go with a steal.
The Fordham water polo team will now head west to California for its next match against Cal Baptist on Thursday, October 7th, and then moving on to the Claremont Convergence Tournament On October 8th-9th.
