Box Score
FRESNO, Calif. --- Biola Men's Water Polo continued Western Water Polo Association play on Saturday at a smoky Sunnyside High School, facing off against Fresno Pacific.
The Eagles rattled off a thrilling four-goal run in the third quarter and once again saw stellar play between the pipes from
Mitchell Carpenter, but ultimately came up short of its first conference win in a 16-6 loss.
Carpenter continued to steal the show this week. Throughout the game, the lanky freshman keeper recorded multiple blocks when he was left to defend more than one FPU attacker all by himself, and he picked up another penalty shot save.
Carpenter's versatility was shown as he came well out of the cage and got one-hand stops on high lobs, recorded a steal, dimed two assists, cut-off multiple passes and filled the stat sheet with 12 saves.
Biola managed just one goal in the entire first half against the Sunbirds, heading into the final 16 minutes staring at a 7-1 deficit. Biola had quite a few missed opportunities in the first-half, which led to the larger deficit at the end of the game. BU would finish 0-for-9 on 6-on-5 opportunities.
At halftime, the message from coach Nordell was one encouraging his team to not be afraid to shoot the ball. He saw far too many possessions slip away without a quality shot in the first half.
His message sunk in a few minutes into the third quarter as Matt Vinson scored the first of what would be four-straight for BU. The quick hit scoring between took a 10-1 deficit and turned the game to a promising 10-5 status with a whole quarter still to play.
Nolan Rapp scored goals three and four for BU. His two goals helped him to a second-straight multi-goal effort and his fifth multi-goal game in Biola's eight games this year.
Kenny Wulf capped the run at the outset of the fourth quarter with his ninth tally of 2021.
Unfortunately, a 6-on-5 score from FPU broke the Biola run and extended the game to 11-5. The Sunbirds proceeded to score four in a row themselves to put the match out of reach.
Matthew Rodriguez walked the ball and buried one from about four-meters out with just over two minutes left to cap the scoring for BU.
With the loss, Biola drops to 1-7 (0-3 WWPA). It was Fresno Pacific's first WWPA victory of the year and helped them improve to 2-8.
