No. 20 Water Polo Ends Season With Loss To No. 16 Bucknell

(Courtesy of CWPA Website)

Annapolis, Md. - Bucknell's Rade Joksimovic posted a hat trick as #16 Bucknell outlasted #20 Fordham, 10-9, in the third place game of the 2017 Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) Championship at the United States Naval Academy's Lejeune Hall.
 
Cooper Dolan put the Bison ahead at 1-0 with 4:01 left in the first quarter prior to Tristen Knoflick posting the equalizer at 3:04 to deadlock the teams at one-all after a quarter of play.
 
The Bison gained the lead for good in the second quarter as Matt Blackwell and Joksimovic put away shots at 7:01 and 4:27, respectively, to make it 3-1.
 
Cameron Shewchuck responded at 2:09 to move Fordham back within one at 3-2, but Cullen Jacuzzi pushed the margin back to a pair at 4-2 by drilling in a shot at the 1:50 mark.
 
The teams continued to trade shots and goals over the remaining time in the first half as Jake Miller-Tolt racked up a man-up goal (1:15) prior to Joksimovic tacking on his second strike of the frame to make it 5-3 in favor of the Bison by intermission.
 
Fordham trimmed its deficit back to one (5-4) 44 seconds into the third quarter as Ian Watson punched in a score at the 7:16 mark.  However, Bucknell ticked off back-to-back-to-back goals with a five-meter penalty shot by Joksimovic (6:16), an even-strength tally by Cole Donnelly (3:07) and an advantage conversion by Tommy Stupp (1:27) to double-up the Rams 8-4.
 
The lead shrank to 8-5 prior to the final buzzer of the third quarter as Miller-Tolt torqued in a score with 42 seconds left, but Jeff Hagen got the goal back 27 seconds into the fourth quarter to hold a 9-5 lead.
 
Facing a four-goal deficit, Fordham began to chip away at the Bison's scoreboard advantage as Massimiliano Mirachi ripped in a man-up opportunity with 5:27 to go in the game before Miller-Tolt wrapped up a hat-trick at 1:56 to move the Rams within 9-7.
 
Stupp stuffed in a man-up chance at 1:14 for Bucknell's eventual game-winning goal as Phillip Wang (56 seconds) and Mirachi (21 seconds) shaved Fordham's deficit down to one at 10-9.

However, the Bison ran out the clock to prevent Fordham from acquiring a tying look.

For Bucknell, Stupp added two goals to join Joksimovic in posting multi-score games, while Blackwell, Schofield, Hagen, Jacuzzi and Dolan each contributed single markers.

In cage, Charlie Niehaus stopped six shots to take the win, with Fordham's Alex Jahns taking the loss with eight stops.
 
Miller-Tolt led the way for the Rams with a hat-trick.  Mirachi chipped in a pair with Knoflick, Shewchuck, Wang and Watson each finding the back of the cage once.  Following the championship game, both Mirarchi and Miller-Tolt were named to the All-Championship First Team.