No. 7 Pepperdine University Waves Crash Against Roko Pozaric & No. 11 Princeton University, 12-11
MALIBU, Calif. — No. 11-ranked Princeton University continued a West Coast swing by straightening out host/No. 7 Pepperdine University, 12-11, on the road at the Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool behind Roko Pozaric who netted his 255th career goal to become the Tigers’ all-time leading goal scorer.
Princeton and Pepperdine went back and forth to start off the matchup. The first goal of the game came with 4:42 left in the first quarter as Vladan Mitrovic broke open the scoring to provide the Tigers a lead they would refuse to relinquish until the final horn. Pepperdine got one back courtesy a strike by Adam Csapo 22 seconds later prior to Finn LeSieur (4:02) and Mason Killion (1:13) flushing shots to provide Princeton a 3-1 margin.
Milo Joseph chipped the margin back to one in the waning seconds of the first quarter by converting a man-up chance with seven ticks remaining on the clock to inch the Waves within one at 3-2 after eight minutes of action.
Pozaric returned the spread to a pair with 6:38 on the second quarter timer as he lined in a penalty shot for his inaugural marker of the contest.
Pepperdine answered, however, as Christian Hosea beat Princeton netminder Kristóf Kovács at 6:20 to again move the Waves within one at 4-3. However, Gavin Appledorn rocked the iron at 5:56 prior to the Tigers exploiting a Pepperdine turnover in the offensive zone as Tas Palcza fed a ball to Pozaric to make it 6-3 with 4:44 until halftime.
Pozaric’s goal tied the 19-year old school scoring record of former Tiger John Storver.
Enrique Nuño buried Pepperdine a little further as he cashed in on a penalty shot at the four minutes mark to widen the Tigers’ lead to four at 7-3.
Pepperdine attempted to climb back into the contest prior to halftime as Jon Carcarey (3:41) and Milo Joseph (2:11, man-up) sniped shots to cut the Waves’ deficit in half and close to within 7-5 of Princeton.
The final minute of the first half saw the two teams slug it out on the offensive end as Mitrovic (43 seconds) and Erik Ionescu (18 seconds) unleashed scoring blows for the Tigers and Waves prior to Nathan Banos beating the buzzer by torquing in a tally as the horn sounded to return Princeton’s lead to three at 9-6 heading into intermission.
Appeldorn (5:51, man-up) and Pozaric (4:14, penalty shot) attempted to knock-out Pepperdine in the opening moments of the third quarter as the duo deposited the 10th and 11th goals for Princeton to approach doubling-up the Waves at 11-6.
Pozaric’s penalty shot had historical significance for the Tigers’ program. He lined up at the five-meter line before the whistle signaled for him to shoot. He skipped the ball past the Pepperdine keeper to not just earn a hat trick and build his team’s lead to five, but also move his name to the top of the program’s all time career goal list.
The Waves, however, refused to go be broken as Ionescu (2:06) and Csapo (1:04, man-up) responded to chip Princeton’s lead down to three at 11-8. LeSieur delivered a counterpoint with 34 seconds left in the third quarter for what proved to be the winning goal.
Trailing 12-8 with eight minutes of regulation to either force overtime or rally back for victory, Pepperdine put forth an earnest effort to achieve both marks as Joseph (7:30, penalty shot), Sandor Gal (58 seconds) and Ionescu (17 seconds) combined to shave the Tigers’ lead down to 12-11 before time ran out.
For Princeton, Pozaric was the rock upon which victory was built as he finished with three goals. Appeldorn, Mitrovic and LeSieur tacked on pairs of strikes with Banos, Killion and Nuño tossing in solo scores.
Kovacs finished with seven saves in the win.
Across the tank, Joseph and Ionescu both notched hat-tricks for Pepperdine with Csapo contributing a pair of goals. Carcarey, Gal and Hosea accounted for the remainder of the Waves’ offense in support of a 10 save peformance by goalkeeper Jaxon Leach.
