No. 2 USC played for SoCal Invitational title
Just keep winning · Junior Blake Edwards (pictured) and sophomore Grant Stein accounted for 80 percent of USC’s goals against Santa Barbara. – Kyleen Hengelhaupt | Daily Trojan
The No. 2 Trojan water polo team went undefeated in the SoCal Invitational and has advanced to the championship game where they will face No. 1 UCLA Sunday evening. The Trojans are looking to capture their fourth straight SoCal championship.
USC defeated Stanford 9-6 in the semifinals to advance to the finals.
USC jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the first quarter and never looked back, extending the lead to 5-1 by halftime. By the fourth period, the Trojans had a 7-4 lead.
Junior Blake Edwards continued his dominating weekend as the Trojans leading scorer with another four goals. Chase Koplow, Lachlan Edwards, Matteo Morelli, James Walters and Mihajlo Milicevic each scored an additional goal for the Trojans.
Goalkeeper McQuin Baron had another strong day in goal for USC with seven saves on the day, four of them coming in the opening quarter of the match.
The Trojans opened the tournament with a dominant 17-3 win over San Jose State Saturday afternoon. The Trojans took an 10-0 lead into halftime after a big second period in which they scored eight unanswered goals.
Junior Blake Edwards netted a hat trick in just the second period. Redshirt freshman Chase Koplow and redshirt sophomore Mitch Embrey each also tallied hat tricks over the course of the game. Sophomore Lachlan Edwards also netted two goals in the second period.
The Trojans also had additional goals from five other players: James Walters, Matteo Morelli and Nick Lavayen.
Baron only played for the first half of the game, but kept the Spartans scoreless, not allowing a goal.
As the afternoon rolled around, the Trojans went up against No. 6 UC Santa Barbara defeating them 10-8.
USC opened the game with a 4-1 first quarter and was able to hold off every attempt by UCSB to cut the game to one goal.
Two Trojans netted four goals a piece. Blake Edwards and sophomore Grant Stein counted for 80 percent of the Trojans scoring in the game. The other two goals came from Lachlan Edwards and Bryce Hoerman.
Baron stood tall in the goal for the Trojans once again with 11 saves in the game.
The win propelled the Trojans to the semifinal match on Sunday afternoon against Pac-12 rivals Stanford where they won, 9-6.
The Trojans faced off against crosstown rivals UCLA in the championship match on Suday evening, but results were unavailable at press time. A recap of the match can be found online.