Watch Replay of the Game The date was October 9, 1981. That was the last time Fordham defeated Bucknell in water polo. Now, 33 years and 29 matches later, the streak was finally broken on Sunday as
Ethan Vandeventer scored in sudden death overtime to give the Rams a 7-6 win over the Bison.
The win capped a two-win day by the Rams as they defeated Washington & Jefferson, 14-3, earlier in the morning. Fordham is now 6-2 on the year.
In the morning session, Fordham built up a 6-0 lead in the first quarter on Washington & Jefferson with six different players scoring. The Rams tacked on two more in the second and four in the third to hold a commanding 12-3 lead going into the final quarter.
For Fordham,
Mike Hay led the way with three goals, while
Cameron Shewchuck,
R.J. Simmons, and
Eric Minowitz each netted a pair of goals.
Bobby Wurtz,
Andrew Gonzalez,
Patrick Reyes,
Ethan Vandeventer, and
Peter Bergum had one goal apiece to round out the Fordham scoring. In net,
Noah LeBeau played the first half, making seven saves, while
Patrick Harrigan had three saves in one quarter of action.
Bryce Charles and
Alex Jahns each played half of the final quarter with Jahns making one save.
In match two, Fordham put forth a monster defensive effort against a heavily favored Bucknell squad. The Rams held the early lead with Gonzalez netting goals in each of the first two quarters, while a Simmons' goal in the second quarter made it a 3-1 Fordham lead.
Fordham continued to lead in the third quarter as Minowitz and Simmons scored to extend the lead to 5-2.
Bucknell rallied back with two straight goals to make it, 5-4, by the end of the quarter. The physicality then got rough, as Minowitz would have to leave the game with a bloody nose after catching an elbow to the face.
Gonzalez then opened the fourth quarter with his third goal of the game to make it a 6-4 lead for Fordham. However, Bucknell got two goals from Jeff Hagen to force the game into overtime.
Neither squad was able to find the back of the net in either of the three-minute overtime periods, forcing a sudden death session. After a possession by each team, Fordham had possession, dumping the ball down to
Peter Bergum, who was fouled outside the two-meter area. On the re-start,
Patrick Lenihan quickly found Vandeventer on the left side for the one-timer, which just went over the line for the game-winning goal.
For Fordham, Gonzalez finished with three goals, followed by Simmons with two and Minowitz and Vandeventer with one each. In goal, LeBeau was superb with 15 saves and three steals, which included stopping two breakaway attempts.
The Fordham water polo team will next be in action on Saturday, September 20
th, when the Rams open league play with matches at Connecticut College at 1:00 PM and at Brown at 7:00 PM.
