Just over 20 minutes into No. 1 USC men’s water polo’s regular season closer against No. 2 UCLA on Saturday — a battle for the top rank heading into the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament — the scoreboard at Uytengsu Aquatics Center went black.

The teams paused, treading water under the pouring rain. Technical difficulties from a city unaccustomed to such weather meant the Trojans could take a moment to think after barely catching up to the Bruins’ hot offense. Albert Hammond’s “It Never Rains in Southern California” blared from the speakers overhead. 

After a roughly 20-minute delay, the score flickered back on screen — 3-3 — and so did USC’s chances.

USC (18-3, 4-2 MPSF) proceeded to give UCLA (22-1, 5-1) a bare-knuckled brawl, taking the lead in the second period and holding its own until the final two minutes, when the Bruins, thirsty for revenge, scored their final two goals to eke out a 14-13 victory. The win dropped the Trojans to the No. 2 seed in the MPSF Tournament while the Bruins went home with the top seed.

USC, which had handed UCLA its only loss of the season in an Oct. 18 road win, replicated its performance with a balanced offense that matched its score from the previous game — the joint-most goals allowed by the Bruins this season — and sturdy defense. The Trojans also dominated UCLA in power plays, but the Bruins’ formidable presence on both sides of the ball put them over the edge.

Trojans shine in power plays

Until the very end, the Bruins made several errors that frustrated their hopes for an upset: USC by far outperformed UCLA in power-play conversions, scoring in 8-of-13 as opposed to just one from the Bruins in the same number of tries. 

“Usually, who wins that battle in 6-on-5, 5-on-6, wins the game,” Head Coach Marko Pintaric said in an interview with the Daily Trojan after the game. “I thought my team played really good today. They deserved to win.”

Freshman 2-meter Strahinja Krstić anchored the Trojans’ strong performance in power plays, drawing a game-high nine exclusions and tying his season record of four goals on the day. USC’s depth helped capitalize on the opportunities, as seven different players contributed to scoring. Junior driver Robert López Duart scored a hat trick while also logging two steals, and junior utility Stefan Branković put up two goals and a season-best five assists. 

After the Bruins came in hot on offense, dishing out three unanswered goals in the first seven minutes of play, they struggled to avoid the crossbar on several attempts. But the MPSF’s leading scorer, sophomore attacker Ryder Dodd, continued to be a force on offense, supplying 3 natural goals and UCLA’s only power-play conversion of the game. Redshirt junior attacker Frederico Jucá Carsalade and sophomore utility Bode Brinkema put up two goals each to support Dodd’s effort.

Meanwhile, the Trojans’ star senior driver Mihailo Vukazić had an uncharacteristically quiet game, putting up just one assist and causing two exclusions in only his second game without a goal this season. With just four seconds remaining in the fourth period, he tried a long shot after a USC timeout, but the attempt skimmed the top of the crossbar, sealing the Trojans’ fate.

“Timeout-calling was okay. We scored two huge goals out of our timeouts,” Pintaric said. “I really thought we were gonna get something in the last possession.”

A tale of two halves for Mills

While it took him a few minutes to heat up, redshirt sophomore goalie Charles Mills exploded in the second period for six saves against two allowed goals, helping to fuel the Trojans’ comeback following the Bruins’ early start. After the half, though, Pintaric swapped goalies for redshirt junior Bernardo Herzer, who made a moderate impact in his sole period of play with two saves and one assist against four goals allowed.

Mills and Herzer have split play time for most of the season, though Mills has been Pintaric’s preferred choice for starting. By the time he came back into play in the fourth period, however, Mills only made one save against the Bruins, who scored five times in the period to secure the win. He finished with a 47% save percentage on the day, saving nine attempts and allowing 10 to get through.

“We should do [a] better job defensively, moving and challenging the shooters,” Pintaric said. “Shot blocking [should improve] for goalies as well.”

On the Bruin side, redshirt sophomore goalie Nate Tauscher sank to a roughly 40% save percentage against the Trojans on nine saves, a noticeable drop from his season average of just over 56%.

The only penalties in the game came in the final period, when the two teams engaged in a tit-for-tat penalty shootout within 20 seconds of each other to bring the score to 11-11. Each team upped the score incrementally — USC in power plays and UCLA in natural goals.

In the final three minutes of play, two skirmishes led to misconduct exclusions on López Duart on one end of the pool and UCLA sophomore utility Peter Castillo on the other. With a mere minute left, the Bruins secured another penalty shot to put themselves over USC and seal the victory.

The Trojans look to fine-tune their defensive effort ahead of the MPSF Tournament, which begins Friday at 4 p.m. at Stanford’s Avery Aquatic Center.