SoCal Tournament Central
Los Angeles - Krisztian Laczkovics, Ben Stevenson and Devon Thumwood each scored two goals as the No.7 Pacific men's water polo team opened SoCal Tournament action with a 12-7 lead over No. 10 Princeton. Pacific's Tigers out-scored Princeton's Tigers 8-3 in the second half to move on to the quarterfinals.
The Pacific Tigers will face No. 2 Stanford at 3:05 p.m. Saturday. Pacific handed Princeton just the third loss of the season for the Ivy Leaguers (11-3).
Pacific also received goals from Kale Ai, Sean Grady, Matt McKaig, Ikko Saito, J.T. Sarmento and Michael Woodbury.
Drew Hoffenberg gave Princeton a 1-0 lead just 16 seconds into the game. But Stevenson got Pacific on the board at the 5:37 mark to even the game at 1-1. Kale Ai put Pacific in front 2-1 with just under a minute to go in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Princeton tied it on a 6-on-5 goal from Jovan Jeremic, before Krisztian Laczkovics gave the Pacific Tigers a 3-2 lead.
Kayj Shannon tied things up for Princeton early in the second, before Devon Thumwood tallied the 6-on-5 goal as Pacific led 4-3.
Hoffenberg scored his second goal of the game, on a 6-on-5 opportunity. But once again, Pacific had an answer. Michael Woodbury went cross-cage for a 5-4 Pacific lead at the half.
Early in the third quarter, Princeton's Curtis Fink tied the game again at 5-5 before Thumwood's second put Pacific back ahead, 6-5.
Pacific's defense clamped down, getting a pair of stops while Sean Grady and Laczkovics each scored, as Pacific surged ahead 8-5.
Hoffenberg cut the gap to 8-6 to start the fourth quarter, but Stevenson responded to restore a three-goal lead. J.T. Sarmento pushed the Tigers lead to 10-6, and Matt McKaig made the lead a comfortable five goals at 11-6 with 3:58.
After a Jordan Colina goal for Princeton, Ikko Saito tallied with 1:22 remaining to settle on a 12-7 margin.
Brady Moore posted 14 saves in goal for Pacific.
Pacific improves to 11-4 on the season and will face a Stanford squad that is 13-1 on the year following a 21-7 win over No. 16 Loyola Marymount. Pacific has won three in a row against the Cardinal, with a 14-12 win at home in the MPSF regular season, a 11-10 win in the third place game of last year's SoCal Tournament, and a 11-10 win in the NCAA Semifinals in Stanford's home pool.
