Men's Water Polo Wins Twice on Opening Day of Bruno Classic

Posted: Sep 04, 2021

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Santa Clara men's water polo started off the season with a pair of wins at the Bruno Classic.

The Broncos defeated Brown, 14-11, and then rallied for a 16-15 victory against Wagner on Saturday.

Santa Clara never trailed against the Bears and then came back from a three-goal, fourth-quarter deficit to down the Seahawks in opening-day action of the tournament.

GAME ONE: Santa Clara 14, Brown 11

The Broncos scored the first three goals of the game and held off a late charge from Brown, which is serving as host to the two-day tournament.

Ford Eldredge, Zach Fales and Cody Ferguson each scored three times, and Sean Tehaney made nine saves for Santa Clara.

Ferguson's third goal, set up by Jake Taylor with 5:51 left in third, made it a 10-3 lead, but the Bears made a push.

Leo Berkman's strike with 5:57 left in fourth cut the Santa Clara lead to 13-8 and after the Bears answered, Taylor set up Chase Raisin for a goal with just more than 3 minutes left in the game to increase the advantage to 14-9.

GAME TWO: Santa Clara 16, Wagner 15

Dominick Kirk's goal on a 5-meter penalty shot with just more than 1 minute left in the game helped lead the Broncos to a 16-15 comeback win over Wagner.

After Kirk's goal with 1:17 remaining, the Broncos needed a defensive stop and goalie Chase Zamborelli turned aside a point blank attempt from the Seahawks with 5 seconds left.

Zach Fales scored four times and Billy Barry posted three goals for the Broncos who trailed by three entering the fourth quarter.

Matt Somers and Fales scored in the opening minute of the final period to help set up the late rally.

Somers scored with 4:41 left and Fales made it 15-all 38 seconds later.

Ford Eldredge and Kirk each had two goals for the Broncos.

NOTES
• Matt Peterson, Jake Taylor, Blake D'Souza, Chase Raisin, Dominick Kirk and Cody Ferguson started both games. Sean Tehaney was in net against Brown and tallied nine saves. Chase Zamborelli went the distance vs. Wagner and registered 10 blocks
• Connor Long, Mason Jaeger and Zach Fales made their Bronco debuts. Fales posted a team-best seven goals in the opening two games.
• Taylor had a team-best four assists in the two games, including three against Brown.
• Billy Barry and Ford Eldredge each had five goals on the day, trailing only Zales.

QUOTABLE
Those were two really good road wins to start the season. We came out very strong against Brown and were really in sync, especially for the for first game of the season. We struggled on defense during the first three quarters against Wagner but we figured it out in the fourth and had an exciting come from behind win.
- Head coach Keith Wilbur

TOURNAMENT INFO (BRUNO CLASSIC)
When: Sunday, Sept. 5 (vs. Fordham 5:30 a.m. PT; vs. Gannon at 9:15 a.m. PT)
Where: Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center (Providence, R.I.)
Live Stats: None
Video: ESPN+ (Fordham | Gannon)