Retour
Sophomore attacker Tomas Perrone scored the last of his five goals with 40 seconds left in the second overtime to lift the No. 1 Cal men’s water polo team to a 20-19 victory over No. 5 Fordham at Spieker Aquatic Complex on Friday night.
The Bears, who climbed to the top of the national rankings for the first time in three seasons with victories over UCLA and USC last weekend, improved to 15-4 with their sixth straight win. Cal completed its home schedule at 8-0.
Fordham lost for just the second time in 25 matches. The Rams visit second-ranked Stanford on Sunday.
Cal closes out the regular season next Friday on the road against Stanford. The Bears beat the Cardinal 12-8 in Berkeley last month.
The MPSF championship tournament is set for Nov. 20-22 at Los Angeles.
Cal trailed Fordham 9-8 at halftime before taking an 11-10 lead into the fourth period. The Bears seemed in control at 15-10 when Dom Brown scored with 5:04 left in regulation.
The Rams tallied three goals in the final 1:54, with Andras Toth forcing overtime when he scored with 1 second left to make it 16-all.
Fordham scored first in the initial overtime, but Perrone squared things at 17-17 by scoring with 16 seconds left.
The Bears led 19-17 with 1:30 left in the second OT after goals by Kai Inoue and Maddox Arlett. Fordham’s Toth found the back of the net with 1:14 left, but Perrone scored off an assist from Inoue for a 20-18 margin with 40 seconds remaining.
Toth netted his fifth goal with 20 seconds left, pulling the visitors within 20-19, but Cal held on to win.
Perrone added an assist to his haul of five goals, Inoue had three goals and five assists, Beso Akhvlediani contributed three goals and two assists, while Brown and Seth Bousfield each scored twice.
Cal goaltender Aran Pina recorded 15 saves.
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