Bruins lose battle with Trojans in double overtime

The USC men’s water polo team settled its crosstown score
with UCLA Saturday with a 10-8 double overtime win, after
having lost to the Bruins 9-7 in overtime in the first meeting
between the two teams.

Though the Bruins’ two meter man, Ted Peck, dominated on
offense, Trojan goalie Bozidar Damjanovic turned in a solid
performance to stop the Bruins from beating his team a second
time.

“Our goalie played an outstanding match,” USC coach
Jovan Vavic said. “He kept us in the game.”

Damjanovic fired up his teammates, who played a physical
defensive game.

“Their defense was aggressive,” Peck said, “so
three shots that I took didn’t convert into goals. They got
good defensive positioning and fronted me a lot of
times.”

UCLA didn’t seem to wake up until the game’s second
half. In the first quarter, the Bruins handed Damjanovic five saves
and only beat the USC goalie twice in the first half with two goals
from Peck. The Trojans led 4-2 at halftime.

“In the first half, we didn’t shoot the ball well at
all,” UCLA coach Adam Krikorian said, “we shot at the
goalie’s stomach, not the corners. We had no killer instinct,
but we stayed in the game and kept shooting.”

Brett Ormsby started off the scoring in the third quarter for
the Bruins with a four-meter penalty shot and Matt Flesher tied the
score shortly after.

The Bruins struggled a little on defense, and the Trojans
answered UCLA’s comeback efforts with a flashy backhanded
goal from center Cameron Kaiser.

“We were a little too soft on guarding the hole,”
Krikorian said.

The Bruins held the lead for most of the third and fourth
quarters, but a late goal by USC’s Jaraj Zatovic sent the
teams into overtime.

“We are both evenly matched teams,” Ormsby said,
“and that is shown by the fact that we went into overtime
both times. It could have gone either way both times.”

Peck scored the Bruin’s only goal in the first overtime,
and Zatovic evened the game up again for the Trojans.

“Peck did a great job at the end of the game,”
Krikorian said, “he had a big goal for us in overtime. Their
center (Zatovic) is a really good shooter.”

The Trojans scored twice in the second overtime to seal their
win over the Bruins.