The University of Redlands men's water polo team traveled to Pasadena on Sunday to battle it out with the Whittier College Poets in the third-place match of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Championship Tournament. Despite trailing by five early in the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs rallied to tie it up and force overtime, before prevailing in thrilling fashion with a late-game goal by freshman driver Spencer Allen (Long Beach, CA) to secure the victory.
Whittier came out firing and quickly jumped to a 4-0 lead over Redlands.
But the Bulldogs were not discouraged, as junior center Matt Shippen (Santa Maria, CA) registered the first goal of the game with 3:03 left in the opening period.
However, Redlands faced a similar deficit at quarter's end at 3-7, with Shippen netting his second goal and senior center Danny Hartwig (Vista, CA) also finding the back of the net.
In a more defensive showing, the teams each scored only twice during the second stanza, sending Redlands into halftime down by a score of 5-8.
After a pump-up speech from Head Coach Tom Whittemore, the Bulldogs entered the third stanza with determination in their eyes. Junior center Max Taylor (Henderson, NV) took those words to heart and found the back of the net to close the gap down to two goals. He went on to score another, while junior driver Kevin Chapa (Carlsbad, CA) added two of his own. Whittier matched those goals, also netting four in the third quarter, to make it, 12-9, in favor of the Poets with eight minutes to play.
In a highly productive period, six different Bulldogs found the back of the net, as highlighted by freshman driver Kyle Jackson's (Naperville, IL) pair of netters. Trailing by as many as five, Redlands relied on heart and tenacity to chip away at the deficit. With 10 seconds left, senior driver Kyle Murata (Brea, CA) completed the improbable rally with the game-tying goal.
In its final opportunity to muster a comeback, Redlands outscored the Poets by a 7-4 margin to tie it up at 16 and send the game into overtime. The Bulldogs also gained huge defensive plays throughout this stanza to limit Whittier in its scoring options.
After trading scores once again, the teams headed into the second overtime with victory on their minds. With 29 second left on the clock, Redlands had the ball and called a timeout. With one last chance before sudden victory, the Bulldogs looked to Allen (Long Beach, CA), who fired a shot from far out that rocketed to the back of the net for the game-winner.
Redlands finishes the 2016 season in third place in the SCIAC with an overall record of 17-15 and a 6-4 mark in conference.
