The USA Men’s Senior National Team opened the FINA World Cup in strong fashion with a 19-1 victory over South Africa. Bret Bonanni (Huntington Beach, CA/Stanford/Stanford) led a scoring spree with four goals while eight different players found the back of the net in total for Team USA. Alex Obert (Loomis, CA/Pacific/Sac Polo), Alex Bowen (Santee, CA/Stanford/Stanford), and John Mann (Newport Beach, CA/California/NYAC) added three goals each while McQuin Baron (North Tustin, CA/USC/Regency) recorded 11 saves in the win. Team USA is back in action on Wednesday then they meet Montenegro at 2:00am pst. A live webcast is available of all matches courtesy of FINA TV and can be accessed by clicking here. To visit the official tournament website, click here.
The match against South Africa was never in doubt as Team USA controlled the match from the start building a 4-0 lead after the first period and a 10-0 lead at halftime. They lead 14-0 after three quarters and were on the verge of a shutout before South Africa scored late in the fourth on a penalty shot. Despite the South Africa goal the United States cruised to victory 19-1. Team USA went a staggering 10/12 on power plays without any penalty attempts while South Africa was 0/3 on power plays and 1/1 on penalty shots.
Scoring
USA
19 (4, 6, 4, 5) B. Bonanni 4, A. Obert 3, A. Bowen 3, J. Mann 3, J. Samuels 2, J. Smith 2, R. Roberts 1, M. Rosenthal 1
RSA
1 (0, 0, 0, 1)
Saves – USA – M. Baron 11
6×5 – USA – 10/12 – RSA 0/3
Penalties – USA – 0/0 – RSA 1/1
Water Polo News / Swimming News courtesy of USA Water Polo.