YUCAIPA, Calif. – Caltech Men's Water Polo headed east for a pair of back-to-back games at Crafton Hills College, picking up a couple of victories in the team's final nonconference games of the 2023 regular season.
Taking on the Hornets of Fullerton College in the first game, the Beavers leaped ahead with six goals in the first six minutes of the contest, and by the end of the game every single Caltech player had tallied at least one goal or one assist.
Bram Schork scored just 20 seconds into the game on the Beavers' first possession after
Alexi Stapf claimed the opening sprint. Stapf then buried the next two for Caltech for a 3-0 lead with just a minute and 11 seconds played. Then
Justin Hong netted two more before
Joshua Braun scored the Beavers' sixth goal at the 2:09 mark.
Fullerton claimed the first goal of the second quarter, but
Rex Liu replied with a goal and
Heramba Patil added two more to put Caltech up 9-1 just past the halfway point of the period. The Hornets just managed two goals for the rest of the quarter and Caltech led 9-3 at the half.
Patil, Stapf and Hong scored in a relatively quiet third quarter to extend the lead to 12-4. In the final frame,
Eric Verheyden nailed a pair of goals, and then
Axel Haydt finished off the contest with two of his own, giving the Beavers a 16-6 win.
Shuhul Mujoo contributed an assist to Caltech's offense, and Kaleb Hudson Dy was the team's top playmaker with three assists.
Despite the limited time to rest before their next game, the Beavers unleashed even more offense against the hosting Crafton Hills Roadrunners. The duel started out as a back-and-forth affair with tied scores at one, two, and then three goals apiece, with Schork netting all of them for Caltech after scoring just once against Fullerton. Schork scored the next four in a row and six of the next seven goals to give Caltech a 10-3 lead halfway through the second quarter; Patil scored the Beavers' eighth amid that streak.
Schork finished the second game with game highs of four steals, three exclusions, and a tied Caltech program record of 12 goals in a game, currently shared with David Bruning's effort in a 1987 contest. Schork, in his second year after an abbreviated first season, has 73 goals to his name in 2023 and 104 in his career. Chris Bradley holds the program's other two goal-scoring records with 134 in the 2014 season, and 393 through his 2013-16 playing years.
Head Coach
Jon Bonafede and the Beavers will head to the University of La Verne next week for 4 p.m. contest on Wednesday, Oct. 18.
