CMS Men's Water Polo Pulls Away for Key Road Win over Redlands

REDLANDS, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's water polo team broke open a close contest by scoring the first seven goals of the second half as it took a key 14-7 road win on Saturday morning at Thompson Aquatic Center.

Will Clark led the way with four goals for the Stags, as CMS improves to 8-9 overall and gets back level in the SCIAC at 3-3 after a 7-5 defeat to Whittier on Wednesday, improving its positioning in the league standings as it tried to earn a top-four finish and a SCIAC Tournament berth. 

The game was deadlocked midway through the second quarter at 4-4, before Andrew Wraith broke the tie with a goal, and Cristian Pang followed with two straight to give CMS a 7-4 lead. Redlands scored the final goal of the half to make it a 7-5 game at the break, before the Stags broke it wide open with seven straight goals in the second half, before the Bulldogs scored two meaningless ones in the final 1:30 to make it a 14-7 final. 

Christian Thonrton started the run with a goal at the 5:01 mark of the third to make it an 8-5 CMS lead, before Kyle Ballack scored just under 1:30 later to stretch the lead to four. Ben Weldon scored on a 6-on-5 with 2:49 left in the third to make it a 10-5 game, and Eric Warmoth scored 27 seconds later to give CMS a commanding 11-5 lead going into the fourth. 

CMS then tacked on three more goals to stretch the lead to 14-5, with Clark scoring his fourth, before Gavin Rosser and Rob Driscoll added tallies. Redlands got the final two goals of the game to end the long scoreless drought, but it wasn't nearly enough to dent the big CMS lead as the Stags captured the 14-7 win. 

In addition to the four goals for Clark, Pang and Wraith each had four-point days with two goals and two assists, while Thornton had a goal and two assists. Noah Smith had five saves and allowed five goals, before giving way to Aidan Nettekoven with five minutes to play. 
 
CMS will be back in action on Saturday for another key SCIAC road contest, heading to Chapman at 7 p.m.