Pintaric seeks answers as Trojans finish weekend winless

Correction: a previous version of this article misspelled head coach Marko Pintaric’s name. The Daily Trojan regrets this error

From his office at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center, decked out in USC gear, water polo head coach Marko Pintaric opened up a Monday press briefing with a sigh.

“I think this is the first time I’m doing an opening statement after losing three in a row,” Pintaric said.

The No. 2 USC men’s water polo team went 0-3 this weekend at home in a round robin tournament against No. 1 Stanford, No. 2 Cal and No. 2 UCLA. 

Cal and UCLA are tied in the Collegiate Water Polo Association polls after each team won one and lost one against each other, leaving the UC Berkeley Spieker pool last weekend with records of 2-2 each. 

This past weekend restaged these tough matchups with the addition of a dominant Stanford team, who was competing for the first time in over a year, starting its season off in Los Angeles. 

Despite losing Olympian 2-meter Ben Hallock and quick drivers Bennett Williams and Dylan Woodhead to graduation, it seems that the Cardinal didn’t miss a beat with stand-outs sophomore 2-meter Beck Jurasius and freshmen drivers Ethan Parrish, Soren Jensen and Jackson Painter — all of which would be critical to Stanford’s scoring drives. 

USC and Stanford met for the first game of the tournament Saturday morning, with the Trojans hitting six to the back of the net to go into the second. After a period gone and eight minutes in, the Trojan offense came to an almost complete stop.

“We were able to score the goals early, our opportunities; the ball went our way. And that was the only time during the tournament that we had those momentums,” Pintaric said. “After that first quarter, again, offensively, our team completely died out.”

After matching the Trojans 6-6 at the half, the Cardinal added four to their lead in the third. Sophomore driver Marcus Longton, an offensive standout this weekend, tried to pull two out for USC after a dicey save from junior goalie Nic Porter, but the Stanford lead remained, finishing out the final period with a massive 14-8 upset over USC. 

Pintaric praised Longton’s contributions and sees great potential in expanding his offensive efforts. 

“If you leave him, he’s dangerous,” Pintaric said. “Stanford did leave him in that game, so Marcus was really more aggressive and finished his three shots … We need to do a better job to put Marcus in a better offensive situation.”

Saturday night’s game with Cal proved to be even more of a nailbiter. After taking a four-point lead into the half, senior driver Jacob Mercep, freshman 2-meter Max Miller and junior utility Alexander Lansill brought USC within inches of a lead, until the Bears answered back to carry a 9-4 lead into the fourth. The Trojans didn’t get the deficit any lower than 2 as the clock wound down and Longton’s last-minute strike was answered for a 11-8 finish for the Bears.

Though the Trojans took advantage of power plays and penalty shots for a .500 conversion percentage on each in the Cal game, each opponent in the tournament held on to a steady powerplay average of .400 against the Trojans, revealing holes in USC’s defense especially as the game veers into the second half. 

“Five on six defense is a communication,” Pintaric said. “We did some very, very good runs stopping the opponent for the long periods but again, I’m just going to revert to our third quarter. Our third quarter is very crucial in all these games. For our team, we’re really going to try to address why is our focus dropping down in that third quarter.”

The 6-on-5 defense and penalty opportunities would haunt the Trojans until their final matchup of the tournament against UCLA. Each team drew exclusions in the double digits, and USC made both its penalty shots by the work of Mercep, but only converted on one of 8 power plays. The Bruins and Trojans would go back and forth on drives, many times just one point away, until 2:25 to go and UCLA snuck one more in and held steady for a final 7-5 win. 

With part of the squad returning in their first games of the season this weekend after missing the last due to coronavirus protocols, the Trojans have yet to find a teamwide rhythm that, in the past, has made them almost unbeatable. 

Coach Pintaric sees that vision and continues to push toward it with the coaches, trainers and players. 

“Now this is really looking forward to getting everyone back, in any form,” Pintaric said. “Guys  were out for 10 days, some guys were out for 14 days, some guys played significant minutes — they’re obviously in different shape. But again, having them together and training in game situations, I think we’re going to have better practices and look much better and more positive.”

USC will stay at home this Valentine’s Day to host No. 5 Pepperdine for a matchup at 11 a.m.