LA MIRADA--- Biola Men's Water Polo celebrated its five seniors with a win Thursday night, defeating UC Merced 14-8 in WWPA action at Splash! La Mirada Regional Aquatics Center.
Before the match, the Eagles honored
Jake Burns,
Ryan Previch,
Kevin Slack,
Isaac Demski and
Kyle Seifen for their contributions to the program. The senior group then made its presence felt in the pool, combining for six goals, three assists and seven steals in Biola's final match of the regular season at Splash.
"
Ryan Previch with the first goal of the game is just kind of a full-circle moment," said Head Coach
Jens Cole.
UC Merced opened the scoring on the power play, but Biola quickly answered. Previch tied the game at 6:48 before Demski and
Caden Digby scored to give the Eagles a 3-1 advantage.
The Bobcats responded with two goals to even the score, but Biola regained control late in the period.
Noah Ryznar found the back of the cage with 1:55 remaining before
Ryder Imbriani converted on the power play to send the Eagles into the second quarter with a 5-4 lead.
Biola began to create separation in the second.
Micah Hernandez opened the quarter with an extra-man goal and
Carson Crocket followed with another power-play conversion to extend the lead to 7-4.
"It was a defensive effort from the whole team," Cole said.
Seifen then took over late in the half, scoring at 4:08 before adding a power-play goal with 20 seconds remaining to send the Eagles into halftime ahead 9-6.
The Eagles put together their strongest defensive stretch after the break, shutting out UC Merced for the entire third quarter. Imbriani opened the second-half scoring before Ryznar converted a five-meter penalty at 3:19. Demski followed with his second goal of the night to stretch Biola's advantage to 12-6.
Gavin Starling kept the momentum going with a goal just 26 seconds into the fourth quarter before Burns converted on the power play to extend the lead to 14-6. UC Merced scored twice late, but Biola's advantage was already firmly in place.
Seifen, Imbriani, Demski and Ryznar each scored twice to lead a balanced Biola attack that featured nine different goal scorers. Seifen, Demski and Imbriani each added an assist, while Hernandez and Burns finished with a goal and an assist apiece.
Aiden Ortiz also recorded an assist.
Cole pointed to the balanced scoring. "It was just an exciting thing to see, especially after a couple of hard weeks," Cole said.
The seniors were especially active throughout the victory. Along with the six combined goals, Burns led Biola with three steals, Seifen added two and Previch and Slack each recorded one. Slack also drew two exclusions.
Biola converted five extra-man opportunities and finished with 14 goals on 27 shots.
Igor Pinheiro went the distance in the cage, recording 11 saves over all 32 minutes as the Eagles held UC Merced to eight goals.
Cole praised Pinheiro's play in the cage. "He's been doing a great job commanding the defense, getting big saves, and setting up the offense with his passes," Cole said.
Biola improved to 13-15 overall and 3-2 in WWPA play with the victory. The Eagles return to action Friday, Nov. 6 against Fresno Pacific at Sonora High School.
Â
