UCLA
USC
No. 1 Men's Water Polo Drowns USC, 7-5
October 07, 2000 | Men's Water Polo
Oct. 7, 2000
LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Senior Sean Kern scored four goals in his first game back from the Olympics to lead the No. 1 UCLA Men's Water Polo team to a 7-5 victory over No. 3 USC in MPSF action this morning. With the win, UCLA improves to 8-2 overall and 4-0 in MPSF action. USC drops to 9-2, 2-1 MPSF.
The Bruins opened the scoring early with Blake Wellen giving UCLA a 1-0 lead at 6:28. USC's Tim Wollthan scored with :41 remaining in the period, but Jeff Pflueger scored with :12 left to give UCLA a 2-1 lead after one period.
Kern scored his first goal of the season with 4:11 remaining in the second period to give UCLA a 3-1 lead. Ivan Babic closed the gap for USC with a score, but a goal by Dave Parker gave UCLA a 4-2 lead with 1:57 left in the second period. Kern scored his second goal a little over a minute later to give UCLA a 5-2 lead heading into halftime.
A score by USC's Brian Ault opened the third period, but Kern answered with two goals to give the Bruins a 7-3 lead. Stever O'Rourke slipped one in with :11 remaining in the period for USC to get within three at the end of the third.
UCLA's strong defense, led by goalie Brandon Brooks stopped USC's best opportunity to score. With 4:00 remaining in the game, the Trojans had a 6 on 4 opportunity after two Bruin ejections, but Brooks came up with a huge save to preserve the 7-4 lead. Babic's second goal with two minutes left in the game cut the lead to 7-5, but UCLA's defense remained strong for the victory.
Brooks finished the game with 11 saves, including four in the fourth period. USC's goalie Bozidar Damjanovic finished with nine saves. UCLA returns to action next weekend when it travels to the Bay Area to take on Cal and Stanford.
UCLA 2 3 2 0= 7 USC 1 1 2 1= 5
Scoring:
UCLA-
Sean Kern 4, Dave Parker, Jeff Pflueger, Blake Wellen.USC- Ivan Babic 2, Stever O'Rourke, Tim Wollthan, George Csaszar.
Saves:
UCLA-
Brandon Brooks, 11USC-Bozidar Damjanovic, 9
