SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Santa Clara men’s water polo faced an extremely tough field at the Aggie Shootout hosted by No. 10 UC Davis. They faced four top-20 teams over the weekend including No. 4 Cal and No. 2 Stanford. The highlight of the tournament for the Broncos was a dominating 16-10 win over No. 19 San Jose State.
The third matchup between the cross-town teams saw SCU jump out to an early three goal lead before the Spartans could respond. Two more Bronco goals increased the lead to 5-1 after the first quarter. The second quarter was all SCU as six different Broncos found the back of the net and goalkeeper Joe Maestri stonewalled SJSU to go into halftime with an 11-1 lead.
The Spartans would find some life in the second half, but it was too little too late. Even with four unanswered goals to end the game, the Broncos’ lead was too much and the game ended 16-10 in favor of SCU.
11 players put up goals for Santa Clara in the win, led by Julian Fraser’s three. Demarco Orella and John Raineri each contributed three assists.
Next up for the Broncos was No. 4 Cal. The Bears jumped out to an early lead before Reilley May scored the first goal for Santa Clara. Cal continued scoring in the second, and a goal by Raineri made the score 11-2 entering halftime. The Bronco defense slowed down the Bears in the second half, but scoring eluded them and the game ended 15-4 in favor of Cal.
The tough schedule continued Sunday morning with No. 2 Stanford, who shut out SCU last weekend. The Broncos gave a much better performance this time, holding Stanford scoreless in the second quarter and going into halftime down 7-3. The Cardinal came out strong in the second half and would not be denied, ending the game with a final score of 18-5. Maestri did his best to keep the Broncos in the game and picked up 12 saves in the contest.
Santa Clara faced tournament host No. 10 UC Davis in their final matchup. This physical contest saw 37 total ejections including four players ejected from the game. The score was tied 2-2 entering the second quarter, and things got ugly quickly.
A 5-5 tie was disrupted when two players from each team were removed from the game within 30 seconds of each other and UCD scored two quick goals at the end of the half. The Aggies started strong in the third, and a late Bronco comeback attempt in the fourth was not enough. Even behind Raineri's four goals, No. 10 UC Davis went on to win 15-11.
#19 San Jose State 10, Santa Clara 16
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |||||||||||
| SJSU |
1 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 10 | ||||||||||
| Santa Clara | 5 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 16 |
Goals: Garrat Johnson (1), Chase Schaaf (1), Demarco Orella (1), Julian Fraser (3), Graham McClone (1), Owen Asalone (2), Evan Chang (1), Michael Franco (2), John Raineri (1), Daniel Usedom (2), Will Grant (1)
#4 Cal 15, Santa Clara 4
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |||||||||||
| Cal |
7 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 15 | ||||||||||
| Santa Clara | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
Goals: Julian Fraser (1), Andrew Meylan (1), Reilley May (1), John Raineri (1)
#2 Stanford 18, Santa Clara 5
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |||||||||||
| Stanford |
7 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 18 | ||||||||||
| Santa Clara | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
Goals: Graham McClone (1), Owen Asalone (1), Reilley May (2), Sam Toriggino (1)
#10 UC Davis 15, Santa Clara 11
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |||||||||||
| UC Davis |
2 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 15 | ||||||||||
| Santa Clara | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 11 |
Goals: Julian Fraser (2), Graham McClone (2), Owen Asalone (1), John Raineri (4), Will Grant (1), Sam Toriggino (1)
Fraser and Raineri led all Bronco scorers for the weekend with six goals each.
Santa Clara’s overall record moves to 4-10 after the Aggie Shootout. The Broncos will host their alumni in an exhibition game Oct. 3 at 1:00 p.m. They will then travel to the SoCal Tournament next weekend.
