USC
UC Santa Barbara*
No. 1 USC Finishes MPSF Schedule With 9-7 Win
November 09, 2003 | Men's Water Polo
Nov. 9, 2003
SANTA BARBARA -- James Shin scored two goals Sunday as the No. 1 USC Trojans defeated the No. 9 UC Santa Barbara Gauchos, 9-7, in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation action. The win improves USC to 17-3 overall while the loss drops the Santa Barbara to 11-14 overall and 0-6 in the MPSF. The Trojans complete their portion of the MPSF schedule with a 7-1 record.
Shin's goal in the first quarter ignited the Trojan offense and gave them a lead that they would never relinquish. Junior Andrew Schoneberger responded with a score of his own, but a tie was as close as UCSB would get.
USC demonstrated why they are the No.1 team in the country as they used a balanced offensive attack and strong defense to stifle each run the Gauchos made. Southern Cal had six players record goals on the afternoon and goalkeeper Bozidar Damjanovic tallied eight saves to lead the Trojans to victory. Predrag Damjanov scored twice for USC as did Shin and Nick Andrejic. Thomas Hale and Gadi Hadar scored once for the Trojans and USC's leading scorer Juraj Zatovic found the back of the net once as well.
Junior Brian Alexander led Santa Barbara's offensive attack with three goals including a penalty shot at the start of the fourth quarter that brought the Gauchos within one. Other Gauchos to score were Schoneberger with two goals and freshmen Matt Tilburg and Matt Dale with one apiece.
USC will host the U.S. National Team in an exhibition match on Monday (Nov. 17) at 6 p.m. at McDonald's Swim Stadium.
USC Scoring - Shin-2. Damjanov-2. Andrejic-2, Zatovic-1, Hale-1, Hadar-1 UCSB Scoring - Alexander-3. Schoneberger-2, Tilburg-1, Dale-1 USC Goalkeeping - Damjanovic-8 saves UCSB Goalkeeping - Wright-9 saves
