LOS ANGELES — Cal Lutheran men's water polo is in the SCIAC Championship! Dillon Goldsmith scored the game-winner in sudden death as the Kingsmen upset Occidental 16-15 on Friday night.
The upset trend continued as No. 5 Redlands defeated No. 1 Pomona-Pitzer in the other semifinal game. With No. 3 Cal Lutheran taking down No. 2 Occidental, the Kingsmen now host the SCIAC Championship game on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Samuelson Aquatics Center.
After being tied through regulation and overtime, the game continued to a first, sudden death period. With it remaining tied, the game went to a second, sudden death period, with the Kingsmen coming out on top. Cal Lutheran improved to 15-14 on the year as they defeated Oxy for a third time.
Goldsmith led the way as he put up four points. Ben Brown was next with a hat trick and Johnny Wotawa, Adam Dow, Lincoln Hall and Luke Matthies each added two.
The Kingsmen moved the ball well and recorded 11 assists. Taylor Garcia, Goldsmith, Brown, Dow and Matthies had two each.
Bo DuBois was in the cage and made big saves to seal the win. He recorded 15 saves and two steals and Brown added a team high four steals.
Oxy was on a roll to start the game, scoring the first two points, and had a 3-1 lead with 2:21 left in the first. Dow and Goldsmith answered with back-to-back goals and the game was tied after one quarter.
After the Tigers went up 4-3 in the second, the Kingsmen answered with three straight goals. Hall, Brown and Matthies got in on the fun as Cal Lutheran was up 6-4 with 4:31 left in the half. Just like Cal Lutheran made a run, Occidental did the same, and the game was tied again, 6-6, with 3:13 before the break. The teams exchanged goals before the half ended the score was tied 7-7.
The third quarter kept the points coming, but Oxy used the quarter to take a lead. With the score tied at 8, the Tigers went on a 3-1 run and had a 11-9 lead with 1:28 left in the third. The Kingsmen continued to fight and cut the lead the one, 11-10, with one quarter to play.
This time it was Cal Lutheran's time for the comeback and Hall won the sprint to start the fourth and tied the game on the first possession. The defense finally picked up as the teams remained tied for the next few minutes. The lead continued to change as Brown scored with 5:13 to go. The Tigers fought back, scoring two straight goals, and took back the lead with 2:41. After a few opportunities missed by both teams, Cal Lutheran was down 13-12 and called a timeout with 1:07 left. The Kingsmen knotted up the score with 38 seconds left and the semifinal game went to overtime.
Cal Lutheran scored the first goal of overtime as Garcia scored with 1:32 left in the first half. The Kingsmen had a big moment at the end of fifth period/overtime as Wotawa gave his team a 15-14 lead as the buzzer sounded. Occidental got the only goal in the second part of overtime and the game was tied 15-15 and went to double overtime. It came down to a second sudden death period and Goldsmith called game as he got his team to the championship game.
Box Score: CLU 16, OXY 15
CLU Instagram: CLUSports
Sport IG: kingsmen_water_polo
CLU Twitter: CLUSports
Sport Twitter: CLUmWaterPolo
CLU Facebook: CLUSports
Hashtags: #clusports #ownthethrone #goregals #gokingsmen #theSCIAC #ncaad3
