CMS Men's Water Polo Keeps Rolling with 15-7 Road Win over Occidental

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Fresh off a big 9-8 win at Pomona-Pitzer on Wednesday, the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's water polo team picked up another road SCIAC win with a 15-7 victory at Occidental on Saturday morning to move to 4-1 in SCIAC play.

Junior Nick Britt and senior Ethan Lewis each had tricks for CMS, while junior Christian Thornton added two goals and three assists to lead the Stags with five points. 

Occidental got off to a strong start and took a 3-1 lead midway through the first quarter on an extra-man goal, before the Stags started to take control. Junior Rob Driscoll scored back-to-back goals to knot the score up with 1:22 left in the first and Britt scored his first to give CMS the lead for good with 15 seconds left on the clock. 

Thornton tallied a goal on the first CMS possession of the second quarter to make it a 5-3 game, and Britt scored his second to cap off a 5-0 run and give the Stags a 6-3 lead. Sophomore Eric Warmoth answered an Occidental goal with two straight to make it an 8-4 lead, and sophomore Will Clark capped off the first-half scoring to make in a 9-5 CMS advantage at the break. 

Thornton scored the first goal of the second half, and Britt finished off a hat trick to push the lead to 11-5 with 2:53 left in the third. Senior Harrison Miller and first-year Noah Weldon added fourth quarter goals, before Lewis finished off a hat trick off a feed from first-year Nick Hernandez to close out the CMS scoring at 15-6 with 1:44 to go. Occidental tacked on the final tally of the match to make the final score 15-7. 

Sophomore goalie Noah Smith had six saves to get the win in net for the Stags, while first-year Ben Weldon led the defense with three steals. Junior CJ Box drew three exlusions to lead CMS in that category. 

The Stags will be back in action next Saturday for their third straight conference road game, taking on Chapman for an 11 a.m. contest.