No. 3 men’s water polo avenges loss to Cal

In what was likely the men’s water polo team’s biggest game of the season so far, the crowd and band at Uytengsu Aquatic Center created an incredible atmosphere for Saturday night’s game against Cal.

“It was a great crowd,” junior driver Matteo Morelli said. “They cheered for us from the beginning — we were really pumped up.”

Not only did the student section rise to the occasion for the No. 3 Trojans’ rematch against No. 2 Cal, but the team also channeled all of its emotions from losing to the Bears in September to produce an efficient 10-6 win.

“That was our only loss this year,” Morelli said. “We lost to Cal a month ago in the NorCal tournament, so we were really prepared to beat them this time.”

In a night where many Trojans stepped up to the occasion, none stood out more than Morelli, who followed up his three-goal performance against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Friday with a memorable four-goal output on Saturday night. He started the night’s scoring with a long shot three minutes in. After the two teams traded goals for most of the second quarter, being tied at 3-3, Morelli scored on a penalty shot to seize the lead. The Bears would never reach even with the Trojans again.

When freshman two-meter Matt Maier scored a goal late in the second quarter, the Trojans secured a 5-3 halftime in what was an ideal situation for the underdogs. However, the Bears took little time to come surging back. In the third period, junior driver Blake Edwards netted to extend the lead to 6-3. Then the Bears quickly scored twice in a row, one on a penalty shot where junior goalie McQuin Baron was excluded from play. With the Men of Troy’s lead eroding at 6-5 and all of the momentum on Cal’s side, USC was in desperate need of a goal in order to seize back control of the game.  Morelli provided just that on a lob shot that just managed to fool Cal goalie Lazar Andric, floating into the corner of the net.

Late in the game, the tandem of Morelli and junior two-meter Lachlan Edwards became too much for Cal. First Morelli assisted Edwards for an easy goal, and then Edwards returned the favor by assisting Morelli’s fourth goal. The game’s final goal with around six minutes left, saw Morelli once again assist Edwards on a play that resembled more of an alley oop than a water polo play.

“We’re really good friends so we always hang out together, but also I think the team chemistry is great,” Morelli said. “Everyone loves each other, and we always hustle for each other. I think this year the chemistry is going to make a difference in the end.”

While USC’s goal scoring effort was key in Saturday’s 10-6 victory, ultimately the defense was the difference.

“It was pretty good to hold a team like Cal to six goals,” junior two-meter Lachlan Edwards said. “We smothered them on defense and they couldn’t really do anything.”

Baron saved his best performance of the season for the biggest stage. He tied his season high with 16 saves, stifling Cal’s most prolific goal scorers. One of the bigger stories of the game was who would win between the MSPF’s best keeper in Baron and the conference’s leading goal scorer in Johnny Hooper. After holding Hooper to just one goal (Hooper’s second was on a penalty that Baron was excluded from), suffice it to say that Baron came out victorious. One sequence in the second quarter saw Baron reject two of Hooper’s shots in a row; the crowd went crazy.

One trademark of Saturday’s intense game was frequent finger wagging, reminiscent of former NBA player Dikembe Mutombo, whenever the defense produced a steal or save.

“They did that kind of stuff to us last game when they beat us. We went into this game making sure that they knew it was our game,” Edwards said.