Water polo finishes Harvard Invitational splitting two games

Sunday, October 17

Cambridge, Mass.

10:30 AM

Brown University

Gannon

Photo by: David Silverman Photography

Water polo finishes Harvard Invitational splitting two games

10/17/2021 6:40:00 PM | Men's Water Polo

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Brown men's water polo finished the weekend at the Harvard Invitational splitting game against Gannon and Wagner. Brown beat Gannon in the first day of the game before losing to Wagner to close out the tournament.

"We did not execute in either game today offensively and it hurt our defense," said head coach Felix Mercado. "I was satisfied with the effort but we need to be smarter. We wll take the split of games and regroup for our Santa Clara trip."

GAME 1 vs Gannon
Against Gannon, both Cole Atwell and Filip Aleksic finished with hat tricks as the Bears beat Gannon 9-7. Joe Gallagher finished with 10 saves in goal.

Gannon took the early lead with two goals in the first quarter, taking a 2-1 lead. Aleksic was the lone goal scorer for the Bears in the opening frame.

Down 3-1 early in the second, Ben Resko tallied a goal but Gannon responded to take the lead back. Andrew Penner and Atwell each scored late in the quarter to tie the game 4-4 at halftime.

Atwell scored to answer a Gannon goal and after another goal by Gannon, Aleksic scored two goals in a minute to put Brown up by one entering the fourth quarter.

Gannon tied the game less than a minute in to the fourth but Ben Kirshon answered with a goal to put the Bears ahead. Two minutes later, Atwell scored another goal to get to the final margin.

GAME 2 vs Wagner
In the last game of the weekend, Penner led the Bears with three goals while Atwell and Enright each tallied two.

In a close battle, Leo Berkman, Penner and Aleksic all scored in the first period but Wagner scored four goals to take a 4-3 lead in to the second.

Brown took the lead in the second quarter with goals by Enright but after Enright's second goal, Wagner scored 30 seconds later to tie the game. Three minutes later, Wagner tallied another goal to take a 6-5 lead into the half.

Goals by Penner and Atwell again put the Bears in to the lead but Wagner scored with 30 seconds left in the quarter to tie the game heading in to the last period of play.

Atwell and Penner each scored again in the fourth but Wagner responded each time, tying the game at nine with 2:37 left in the game. A minute later, Wagner tallied the go-ahead goal and Brown was not able to tie the game, falling 10-9.

Brown will be on the road again next weekend at the Julian Fraser Memorial Tournament on Friday (Oct. 22) – Sunday (Oct. 24). The Bears will take on Cal Baptist, Fresno Pacific, Air Force and San Jose State.