Anteaters double up on Trojans

The UC Irvine men’s water polo team, which missed its chance to

knock off top-ranked Stanford Friday, came up with a 4-2 victory over

third-ranked USC Sunday in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation

contest Sunday at UCI.

Coach Ted Newland’s Anteaters, ranked No. 5, split their goals

equally between the first and third period, while allowing the

Trojans only single tallies in the second and fourth quarters.

A man-advantage goal by sophomore Dreason Barry with 5:39 left in

the first quarter opened the scoring and senior Jeff Powers netted

another goal with three seconds left in the opening period to double

the hosts’ lead.

Senior Jordan Hewko put the Trojans on the board with an extra-man

goal with 5:40 left in the second quarter and the score remained,

2-1, heading into halftime.

Junior Phil Garcia scored for UCI on a six-on-five situation with

5:03 left in the third quarter and junior Garrett Gentry added a goal

with 1:03 remaining in the period for a 4-1 Anteater lead.

USC sophomore James Shin scored with 2:22 left in the game to

close to within 4-2, but the UCI defense prevented further damage,

including turning the Trojans away on a man-advantage situation in

the final minute.

Senior goalie Doug Finfrock had eight saves for the Anteaters

(11-6, 2-2 in conference).

Junior Bozidar Damjanovic posted 15 saves, including 13 in the

first half, for the Trojans, who fell to 14-5, 3-2.

UCI continues its recent stretch of highly regarded opponents when

it visits No. 2-ranked UCLA Saturday at Noon. The Anteaters then

return home to host the University of the Pacific Sunday at noon.

MOUNTAIN PACIFIC SPORTS FEDERATION

UC Irvine 4, USC 2

Score by quarters

USC 0 1 0 1

-- 2

UC Irvine 2 0 2

0 -- 4

USC -- Hewko 1, Shin 1. Saves -- Domjanovic

15.

UCI -- Barry 1, Powers, 1, Garcia 1, Gentry 1. Saves --

Finfrock 8.