PASADENA, Calif. – The Occidental men's water polo squad grabbed momentum early in helping them to a 23-8 win over Caltech on Wednesday afternoon at the Braun Pool.

Occidental jumped out to a 5-0 lead with 2:04 left in the first period. The Beaver responded with back-to-back goals by Adam Khan and Daniel Sexton to close their deficit to 5-2 after the opening stanza.

The visitors used another early period effort to push their lead to 7-2 less than two minutes into the second period. Caltech fought back with a mini-scoring spree to get within 8-4 on goals by Jack Blackwood and Zack Gomez. However, Occidental responded with a 2-1 scoring spurt of their own in taking a 10-5 edge at intermission.

In the third period the Occidental offense helped grab all the game's momentum. The Tigers scored five unanswered goals to start the frame in taking a 15-5 lead at the midway point of the period. Caltech put two goals on the board in the period but Occidental won the stanza 6-2 in taking a 16-7 lead heading into the final eight minutes.

Occidental finished the game by scoring seven of the final eight goals to seal the win.

Joe Reynolds paced the Tigers offensive attack with a five-goal afternoon. Bredan Whitmore scored one goal in each period while Christian Erwin posted a hat trick to aid in the Tigers efforts.

Gomez and Sexton each had two goals to lead the Caltech offense.

Ben Grabowski made 12 blocks in goal for the Beavers.