By Johnny Schaffer — Reporter
The San Jose State men’s water polo team (15-13, 2-3 GCC)… lost 18-12 against Stanford University (16-5, 0-3 MPSF) on Saturday, Nov. 13 in their last home game of the 2021 season.
Senior goaltender Yahav Fire, senior two-meter Neil Arnett and junior driver Adam Bado were all honored for senior day.
The Cardinal jumped to a 3-1 lead in the first period with goals from junior two-meter Beck Jurasius, senior driver Quinn Woodhead and junior driver Larsen Weigle.
But with a couple of key saves from Fire, the Spartans climbed back to tie the game 3-3 with three minutes to go in the first period.
The Spartans then snagged their first lead of the game 5-4 off the Babo with a 1:23 left to go in the first period.
Scoring went back and forth in the final minutes of the first frame where each side was tied at six.
Both Babo and Arnett had two goals in the period.
The Cardinal began the second period rather quickly with a 8-6 lead in the first minute of the second period.
Stanford stayed on top throughout the second period and the Spartans now trailed 11-8.
In the third period of action, the Cardinal jumped to a 13-8 lead, but the Spartans held around trailing 14-10 heading into the final period.
In the fourth and final period, the Cardinal glided past SJSU and won the matchup 18-12.
Utility Freshman Marko Radanovich, utility sophomore Mark Kis, Arnett and freshman utility Bence Szabo all netted two goals.
Fire made six saves on 24 shots in his final home game as a Spartan.
Woodhead led the Cardinal in scoring with four goals while sophomore goaltender Nolan Krutonog made 11 saves on 23 shots.
The Spartans will now participate in the Golden Coast Conference Championship tournament in Irvine Friday, Nov. 19- Sun, Nov. 21.
“We’re excited because we did a lot of good things today and we’re gonna carry that right into the conference championships.. We’ll keep it going and make some noise,” said head coach Bruce Watson after the game.
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