Courtesy: USA Water Polo
Irvine, CA – July 12 – The USA Men’s National Team played their first home game since December 20, 2019 earlier tonight, defeating Italy 13-12 at the Woollett Aquatics Center in Irvine. Alex Bowen scored four goals as Team USA held off a late charge from Italy to pick up the one goal win. Jack Turner was stellar in cage in the first half, racking up 11 saves including a penalty shot save to ignite the sellout crowd. Drew Holland came on in the second half with seven saves including a stop as time expired to secure the win. Team USA and Italy meet again on Friday night at a sold out Stanford University. The match is set for 10:30pm et/7:30pm pt and will air LIVE on ESPNU and stream on the ESPN app.
Team USA got off a strong start bolstered by their defense as Turner blocked a penalty try in the opening minutes. From there the offensive floodgates opened as five different scorers found the cage in the opening period including tallies from Bowen, Hannes Daube, Ben Hallock, Marko Vavic and Max Irving. Team USA led 5-1 going into the second quarter and was able to build on that lead with another Hallock goal for a 6-1 advantage. After Italy scored, Chase Dodd got on the board to make it 7-2. Italy added one more and the United States took a 7-3 edge into the break.
Things would change in the third. After Daube scored to make it 8-3, Italy ran off four unanswered goals to make it 8-7. The scores came from Francesco Di Fulvio and Giacomo Cannella as Italy quickly closed the gap. Bowen had an answer with less than a minute to play and Team USA led 9-7 going to the fourth. Both offenses came out firing in the fourth as a combined nine goals were scored. Di Fulvio got Italy to within one early in the fourth, only to have Bowen respond to make it a two goal game at 10-8. This pattern would repeat throughout the quarter as Italy tried to find the equalizer. Filippo Ferrero brought Italy to within one at before Vavic came through with a clutch power play goal on the post to make it 13-11 with :48 second left. Italy would score not long after to make it 13-12 on a Luca Damonte goal. A final try by the Italians was denied by Holland as time expired and the United States picked up the win.
Team USA went 4/7 on power plays and 1/1 on penalties while Italy went 3/7 on power plays and 3/4 on penalties.
Scoring – Scoresheet
USA 13 (5, 2, 2, 4) A. Bowen 4, H. Daube 3, B. Hallock 2, M. Vavic 2, M. Irving 1, C. Dodd 1
ITA 12 (1, 2, 4, 5) F. Di Fulvio 4, G. Cannella 4, L. Damonte 2, F. Ferrero 1, L. Marziali 1
Saves – USA – J. Turner 11, D. Holland 7 – ITA – G. Nicosia 7
6×5 – USA – 4/7 – ITA 3/7
Penalties – USA – 1/1 – ITA 3/4