Playing the final day of the Citrus Tournament down the road at Mt. San Antonio College, the Pirates' men's water polo team went 1-1 Saturday. VC produced a big win against Grossmont 17-10 in the first game of the day before dropping what was essentially a road match against Mt. SAC, 15-13. Ryan Reardon led the way for Ventura (3-3) with eight goals on the day while Kyle Goodrich had four assists and four steals. Goalie Derek Gamberutti recorded 14 saves.
Ventura 17, Grossmont 10
After falling behind 1-0 in the opening minute of play, Ventura reeled off eight unanswered goals over eight minutes of game time to take command of the contest. Five different Pirates scored during the run which concluded with 6:31 left to play in the second quarter. VC led 9-4 at halftime and extended the lead to 14-6 with 1:34 remaining in the third period.
Reardon scored five goals for VC with one shot block and one exclusion. Goodrich had three goals, two assists and two steals while Justin Bouse also recorded three scores. Cole Morter and Jarett Baldwin each scored twice. Gamberutti had seven saves in the cage.
Ventura 13, Mt. San Antonio 15
The second game of the day was almost exactly opposite than the first for the Pirates. VC jumped out to a 3-0 lead less than three minutes into the game against the Mounties before giving up nine unanswered goals by Mt. SAC. Ventura went over 10 minutes of game time without a score to fall into a deep 9-3 hole. Even with a late flurry of offense, the Pirates trailed Mt. SAC 10-6 at halftime.
VC could never get over the hump in the second half, closing to within 12-10 at the end of three periods, and scoring twice i the final minute of play to set the final margin at 15-13.
Glenn Ishida had three goals in the match as Reardon also scored three times with a pair of assists. Baldwin, Jack Burleigh and Justin Bouse all scored twice for VC. Goodrich had two assists and two steals and Morter scored a goal with two assists. Dalton Esrofani recorded nine saves in goal.
Ventura returns to the Inland Empire on Friday and Saturday, Sept 15 and 16 for the 44th Annual Mt. SAC Men's Water Polo Tournament. They will play two matches Friday at Mt. San Antonio before concluding with a pair of matches at Citrus College in Glendora on Saturday.