The Hornets men’s water polo beat Cypress College Wednesday by a score of 13 – 2.

“The team is playing a bit more as a unit. We’re not throwing the ball away quite as much as we did in earlier games. We have a really talented group of player this year,” said Coach Price.

In the first quarter, the Hornets got off to a slow start with only two goals by sophomores Niko Vaccher and team captain Niam Schade.

Vaccher was the first to score, after Cypress received a penalty at the 3:53 mark in the first quarter and gave him the opportunity to get a free shot from the 5-meter line. His shot got the Hornets on the board first leading 1-0.

Schade scored his goal at the 1:10 mark in the first quarter in the left wing position facing the goal getting the lead to 2-0.

In the second quarter, the Hornets exploded offensively surging to four goals from four different players bringing the Hornets lead to 6-0. These goals were shot by Jay Osborn, Niko Vaccher, Thomas Carrasco and Zachary Angulo.

At the 5:40 mark in the second quarter, Cypress freshman Cameron Davidson scored a goal cutting the lead 6 – 1 at the end of the half.

In the second half of the game, the Fullerton offense again dominated the struggling defense of the Cypress chargers. Seven goals were shot bringing the final score to 13 – 2 over Cypress.

Throughout the whole game the Hornets drew 11 ejections with freshman Luis Rivera drawing three; the most out of the seven players ejected.

One of Rivera’s ejections at 1:10 left in the fourth quarter was a penalty issued against him for failing to wait out of play for the full thirty seconds of his previous ejection.

Niam Schade, scored four points; the most scored out of the six players who scored goals. Freshman Angulo and sophomore Vaccher were the second most scoring players with three goals a piece.

Shade credits the win to the selfless attitude the team has, giving everyone an opportunity to succeed.

Sage Bertsch, the Hornets goalie in the first half of the game thought another key to their victory was dominant defense that only gave up two points to Cypress.

The struggling Cypress drew a mere five ejections with one of them being a penalty.

The main reason the Chargers lost was due to the fact the current team is their first water polo team in 20 years and consists entirely of inexperienced freshmen players.

Cypress Water Polo Head Coach Canner attributes the loss to a lack of experience. Noting that most of the players were newly recruited with little to no veteran leadership.

The win puts the Hornets at 1-1 record in conference and 4 – 6 overall.

Next up: The Hornets head to Miramar College for the South of the Border Invitational Tournament on Friday, Sept. 27. The First match against Santa Monica at 11:40 a.m. then Palomar at 2:20 p.m.