Princeton, N.J. - The No. 5 Pacific men's water polo team cruised to a 15-3 win over St. Francis Brooklyn Friday in the Tigers' opener of the Princeton Invitational. Devon Thumwood posted a hat trick with three goals while Brady Moore record a season-high 17 saves in the cage.
Pacific improves to 4-1 on the season as Krisztian Laczkovics, Alex Obert, and Ikko Saito each scored two goals. Kale Ai, Derek Clappis, Aleksandar Petrovic, Tim Reeves, J.T. Sarmento and Ben Stevenson also scored.
The game opened with a defensive standoff as Moore made eight first quarter saves and Terriers goalie Zack Cleveland posted four as the game remained scoreless for over seven and a half minutes. Sarmento finally broke through with a 6-on-5 goal with just 15 seconds left in the first quarter to give Pacific a 1-0 lead.
In the second quarter, Alex Obert and Petrovic posted back-to-back even-strength goals for a 3-0 advantage. Liam Veazey finished for the Terriers 10 minutes into the action to cut Pacific's lead to 3-1, but Thumwood finished off an Obert pass to restore a three-goal cushion.
Thumwood tallied again, next off a feed from Casey Fleming and Laczkovics' goal put the Tigers up 6-1 in the waning seconds of the second quarter.
In the third, Saito stretched the Tigers' lead to 7-1, and Laczkovics added a 6-on-5 goal. Thumwood completed the hat-trick off a pass from Matt McKaig. Ben Stevenson tacked on a goal for a 10-1 lead. The Terriers' Bogdan Kostic picked up a goal back but Obert answered right back with his second with 58 seconds left in the quarter.
Nikita Prokhin tallied for St. Francis Brooklyn in the fourth, before Clappis added a 6-on-5 goal off an assist from Thumwood. McKaig set up Kale Ai for the Tigers' 13th goal to give Pacific a 10-goal lead with two minutes left. Tim Reeves capped the scoring with a 6-on-5 goal with 23 seconds remaining.
Pacific finished the day 4-for-7 on the power player and forced 13 Terrier turnovers.
Cleveland finished with 12 saves for St. Francis Brooklyn, which falls to 2-3.
The Tigers are back in action on Saturday, at 9 am Pacific Time against Harvard before facing Iona at 1:30 p.m. PT. On Sunday, the Tigers face host No. 11 Princeton at 9 am in a national ly televised game on ESPNU.
