San Diego, Calif. - The No. 5 Pacific water polo team jumped out to an early 9-1 lead and never looked back, cruising to a 18-9 win over No. 17 Air Force Sunday morning at the Triton Invite. Devon Thumwood and Ben Stevenson and Tim Reeves each posted hat tricks.
Casey Fleming and Matt McKaig each scored twice while Alex Obert, Krisztian Laczkovics, Aleksandar Petrovic, J.T. Sarmento and Michael Woodbury also scored.
The Tigers stormed out of the gates with four goals in four minutes as Stevenson opened the scoring on Pacific's second shot of the game and tallied again just 51 seconds later. Thumwood put the Tigers up 3-0 and McKaig scored his first of the year at the 4:24 mark.
Stevenson completed the hat trick in 5:24 of action for a 5-0 Pacific lead before Air Force responded with a goal from Ben Rogers on a 6-on-5 opportunity.
Obert restored a five-goal lead seconds later off an assist from Stevenson before Woodbury finished a feed from Ikko Saito. McKaig tallied his second as the Tigers led 8-1 after the first quarter.
Pacific scored nine of its first 12 shots as Sarmento tallied 30 seconds into the second quarter. Air Force responded with back-to-back goals from Riley Thomas and Eric Curia to cut the deficit to 9-3 with 6:38 left in the second.
Tim Reeves picked up a goal at the 3:30 mark and Thumwood posted his second goal of the game before Laczkovics capped the first half scoring and Pacific led 12-3 at the half.
Thumwood completed the hat trick in the third quarter and Fleming got into the act with a 6-on-5 goal off an assist from Derek Clappis.
Robby Stiefel tallied midway through the third quarter and Thomas tacked on his second goal of the game to cut the Pacific lead to 14-5.
The Falcons went on a late run to narrow the gap to 14-8 before Fleming finished and the Tigers coasted home.
Pacific scored on 16 of 27 shots and converted three of six opportunities with a 6-on-5 advantage.
Brady Moore recorded four saves in three quarters of work while Zach Paxton tallied three saves in a quarter of action.
The Tigers improve to 2-1 on the young season and close the Triton Invitational at 4 p.m. against No. 6 Long Beach State.
