Terrier Seniors Denied in Final Home Game as Brown Beats St. Francis 11-8

Six St. Francis Brooklyn men’s water polo seniors felt the bitter sting of defeat at home for only the second time in their careers as Brown beat the host Terriers 11-8 Sunday morning at the Generoso Pope Center in Brooklyn Heights. With the win, the Bruins (21-6; 10-1 CWPA) captured the Collegiate Water Polo Association’s Northern Division regular season title, giving Brown the top seed at the Northern Division Championships next weekend at M.I.T.

For seniors Alex Garvic, Lazar Komadinic, Andras Kovacs, Balin Toth, Vuk Vujosevic and co-captain David Lonnberg, losing at home was an unfamiliar experience. St. Francis (12-10; 10-2 CWPA), which until a 14-11 loss to Harvard last November had not been beaten in Brooklyn in eleven years, had subsequently fashioned a modest seven-match home winning streak.

In a tightly contested match between two bitter rivals, the tension was palpable as both head coaches jockeyed to influence referees’ calls. Brown head coach Felix Mercado clearly got the benefit of his efforts; St. Francis was penalized with 11 exclusions resulting in five Bruin goals with the man advantage. The Terriers were able to score only once on the six occasions they had an extra attacker.

St. Francis, coming off overtime wins yesterday against CWPA rivals Harvard and MIT, was on the defensive for much of the first period. Brown took a 2-1 lead on the strength of goals by Yahel Murvitz-Lahav and Will Klein with the man advantage. SFC’s lone score in the period was rifle shot by Iljia Djuretic.

The second period saw the visiting Bruins sprint out to a 4-1 lead on yet another score with the man advantage—this time by Henry Fox—followed by Klein’s two-meter strike with 3 minutes elapsed.

A goal by the Terriers’ Lazar Komadinic with two minutes left in the period was countered by Murvitz-Lahav’s lollipop shot over the outstretched arms of Terrier goalie Zack Cleveland. With seconds left in the half, SFC’s Balint Toth hammered home a strike from in front of the Bruin cage to make it 5-3 Brown going into intermission.

The Terriers started off quickly in the third period. Komadinic scored with the man advantage two minutes in and on the ensuing possession the Terriers’ Nathan Kotylak scored on a breakaway to even the score at 5. Murvitz-Lahav gave the Bruins a 6-5 lead with a blast from 8 meters out, only to have Kotylak bring the Terriers even with a skip shot that handcuffed Brown goalie Andrew Brown. Another blast from Murvitz-Lahav—his fourth of the game—put the Bruins ahead 7-6 entering the fourth period.

With the final eight minutes of SFC seniors’ home career on the line, it was Brown that excelled in the clutch. Fox scored on the Bruins’ first possession of the fourth period to give his team a two goal lead, followed by a Deaver goal with the man advantage to push Browns’ lead to 10-7.

Andras Kovacs cut the deficit to two with a goal at the five-minute mark, but an exclusion to SFC’s Toth gave Brown yet another chance with the man advantage. Deaver did not miss, scoring his second goal halfway through the period, then Jake Wyatt’s goal with three minutes remaining completed the Bruins scoring, sealing the win.

Kovacs would score for St. Francis with less than two minutes to play, but it wasn’t enough as the Terriers saw their perfect home schedule and perhaps their season dashed by their main rivals in the Northern Division.

“St. Francis is such a great team, regardless of whatever we play it’s going to be good water polo,” said Brown’s Mercado. “It’s always good to get a win against a quality team. Obviously it’s special because it’s against St. Francis, given the proud history they have here at home.”

For St. Francis head coach Srdjan Mihaljevic, the loss to Brown raises questions about his team’s readiness to defend its back-to-back Eastern titles, a defense that starts next week in Cambridge and culminates at the CWPA Championships November 21-23 at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.

“Clearly this weekend demonstrated we haven’t come as far personally as I would like us to,” said Mihaljevic, who then placed expectations on his players going into the Terriers two biggest weekends of the year. “I think it’s more on us for things that we can control, [if] we can improve that will decide on the ultimate outcome of this season.”

Brown Goals: Yahel Murvitz-Lahav 4, Henry Fox 2, Nick Deaver 2, Will Klein 2, Jake Wyatt 1
St. Francis Goals: Lazar Komadinic 2, Nathan Kotylak 2, Andras Kovacs 2, Iljia Djuretic 1; Balint Toth 1

PHOTO CAPTION: St. Francis Brooklyn’s Iljia Djuretic
PHOTO CREDIT: St. Francis Brooklyn Athletics