By Ricardo Garcia — Reporter
The San Jose men’s water polo team (2-4) had a full day of action this past Saturday hosting three games at the SRAC pool.
SJSU began the day against the red hot UC Davis Aggies (5-0) where they were defeated in a tight game by a score of 10-7.
The Spartans opened the scoring with a good shot from junior driver Adam Bado around the fourth minute. Davis quickly answered back 20 seconds later after a successful penalty shot from junior attacker Logan Anderson.
After one period of play, the Spartans held a 2-1 lead with both teams pushing the pace on offense early.
Anderson managed to find the back of the net for a second time to start the second period and tie the game for the Aggies.
Both teams went back and forth trying to build a lead to begin to pull away with the game. The Davis offense began to heat up as it were able to net four goals while the Spartans tried to limit the damage with two goals of their own.
The Spartans now trailed 6-4 against an Aggie offense that was beginning to find their stride as they approached the third period.
The third period began and Davis wasted no time adding to their lead with a goal from sophomore Alex Aznar Beltran early in the period.
SJSU continued to try and chip away at the lead but could not seem to get anything going after two solid offensive periods. The Aggies added two more goals in the final three minutes of the period and held a 9-5 lead as they approached the final period of play.
The Spartans made one final push to bring the game back with a quick deflection goal from freshman Laszlo Szieben to cut the Davis lead to three.
The Aggies held strong to prevent the comeback and added one more goal at the four-minute mark to secure the victory.
SJSU’s second match of the day was against the University of Santa Clara (4-2), which they won in dominant fashion by a final score of 16-6.
The first period showed signs of a close game with each team scoring three goals to set the tone early on. After one period of action, the score was tied at 3-3.
The Spartans began to click on offense in the next two periods. They added three goals including a successful penalty shot from freshman Bende Pardi who tallied his second goal of the game.
SJSU showed strong defense holding the Broncos to zero goals in the second period and only one goal in the third.
Santa Clara continued to struggle on offense to start the third period while the Spartans kept applying pressure finding the back of the net a total of 5 times to increase their lead 11-4 heading into the final eight minutes of play.
The Broncos looked to get some momentum going to cut down the six-goal lead but SJSU had other plans. The Spartans got on the powerplay three times in the 4th period and scored each time to pile onto the lead.
Santa Clara’s last-minute efforts were not enough to create a big enough momentum swing and The Spartans were able to secure the win.
The final game of the day had SJSU facing off against Cuesta College. The Spartans continued to roll as they defeated the Cougars 15-7.
Both teams came out ready on the offensive side of the ball with SJSU gaining the early advantage thanks to a goal from senior driver Ary Kamen.
The Spartans remained hot on offense scoring three more goals while the cougars responded with two of their own. Cuesta trailed 2-4 heading into the second period.
SJSU continued to find the back of the net adding two goals early in the period to extend their lead. The Cougars did not panic and found the back of the net two times two try and manage the Spartan lead.
Eventually, the SJSU offense began to fire on all cylinders resulting in a huge third period that became too much for the Cuesta offense to handle.
Despite two goals from the cougars, The Spartans added four more goals to solidify a lead going into the final period. Freshman Bence Szabo went huge for SJSU providing three of the four goals in the period.
By the 4th period, the lead continued to grow with no signs of the cougars rallying to come back. Time eventually expired and the Spartans secured another dominant victory.
SJSU will close out the weekend on the road where they will look to continue their winning streak against No. 3 ranked UC Berkeley on Sunday at 1:00 p.m.
Follow Ricardo on Twitter @SJSURicardoG