Courtesy: Navy Sports
ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Freshman Kiefer Black tied a Midshipmen school record with nine goals as Navy water polo (11-3, 2-1 MAWPC) posted a 15-6 victory over George Washington (5-6, 1-2 MAWPC) in a Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference game on Thursday evening at Scott Natatorium.
Black tied for the most goals in a game, which was originally set by Brian Wineke against Slippery Rock in 1993 and tied by Isaac Salinas at Johns Hopkins in 2018.
“Kiefer had an outstanding night tonight,” head coach Luis Nicolao stated after the game. “We have a lot of great players on this team. Tonight, it was Kiefer, but throughout the year it has been Aiden, Sam, Heller, Hayden, Tommy. Anyone of our guys has potential to go out and lead us to victory. That was a very good GW team we played tonight and for Kiefer to have this kind of performance… Wow!”
Led by Black, six different Midshipmen found the back of the net on the night. Sam Collingwood joined Black with multiple goals, while Aiden Day, Nathan Duchez, Merle Richman, and Alejandro Schmidt Corujo added scores. Collingwood and Duchez paced the team with two assists, while Day and Williams each added helpers.
Defensively, senior team captain Caden Capobianco allowed just two goals with 11 saves in three innings of work. He gave way to Jack Hightower for the fourth quarter and Hightower added a stop and three steals. In addition to his nine goals, Black matched Hightower with three takeaways on the night.
In the first quarter, Black got the scoring going, finding the back of the net for the first score of the game. George Washington netted the equalizer, but three straight by Navy put the home team in front 4-1 through the first quarter. Collingwood got the run started and Black capped the quarter with back-to-back scores to complete his first quarter hat trick.
Richman started the second stanza with a goal to extend the Mids’ advantage to four. Black converted a five-meter opportunity to push the lead to 6-1. Following a GW score, Navy scored four straight, including two by Black and one apiece by Day and Duchez to take a 10-2 advantage into halftime.
The third quarter was all Black as the Midshipmen outscored the Revolutionaries 3-0 with Black accounting for all three scores.
George Washington chipped into the Navy advantage in the fourth quarter as the Midshipmen took advantage of its depth in the final quarter. GW scored, but Collingwood answered to keep the Navy lead 11. Back-to-back scores by the visitors trimmed the margin to nine, but Schmidt Corujo dented the net to push the advantage back to double digits, 15-5. George Washington provided the final score of 15-6, converting a five-meter opportunity with just 32 ticks remaining on the clock.
Navy continues its homestand with two more conference games against No. 18 Fordham (7:00 p.m.) on Saturday and Bucknell (12:00 p.m.) on Sunday. Both games will be held in Scott Natatorium and will be streamed live on Stretch.