#20 Brown Splits At ECAC Championship's First Day
Sept. 29, 2007
Providence, RI - Day one of the ECAC Championship at Bucknell turned out to be just as difficult as advertised for the #20 Brown men's water polo team (7-2). The Bears dropped their first-round game with #11 Bucknell, 10-6, but recovered to defeat George Washington, 9-7, in the second round. The Bears will now face #17 Johns Hopkins in the fifth-place game on Sunday.
Freshman Corey Schwartz (Los Angeles, CA) had a breakout game against the Colonials, leading the Bears with three goals. He and junior Nico Fort (Miami, FL) both scored first-quarter goals to keep the teams even at 2-2 entering the second frame. The teams remained scoreless until freshman Gordon Hood (Carlsbad, CA) scored with 3:04 left in the half. After a GW goal, Schwartz and junior Hank Weintraub (Los Angeles, CA) scored to give Brown a 5-3 halftime lead it wouldn't relinquish.
GW scored first to open the half, but juniors Mike Gartner (San Jose, CA) and Grant LeBeau (San Diego, CA) scored to make the lead 7-4. Schwartz's third goal came after a Colonials score for an 8-5 Bear advantage with one quarter left, and while George Washington made a run with two goals to cut the lead to one with 2:00 remaining, LeBeau scored the game's final marker with 1:12 left for the 9-7 final.
In the contest, Gartner drew six ejections, while Weintraub led the Bears with four assists and three steals. Sophomore goalkeeper Kent Holland (Orinda, CA) made nine saves to pick up the win.
While the seeds at the tournament were based on the final standings of the 2006 Eastern Championship, the Bears wound up playing the highest-ranked team in the field in the first round even though they were the fifth seed. The host Bison had won eight consecutive games entering the weekend, including victories over then-#13 Pacific, #15 Princeton, and #20 Johns Hopkins.
Brown gave a game effort, answering each Bucknell run with one of its own. Senior Gerrit Adams (Winnetka, IL) got the Bears on the board first, scoring at 3:47 in the first quarter. However, the Bison answered back with three goals before the end of the quarter, including two on power plays. Gartner scored twice before the midpoint of the second quarter, once on a 6-on-5 advantage, to tie the game at 3-3, but the hosts got one 27 seconds before the half to take a 4-3 lead into the break.
Bucknell extended its lead again coming out of halftime, scoring twice, including once on a man-advantage, for a 6-3 lead. Again, the Bears came back, as Schwartz scored at 4:49 and Gartner scored on a 6-on-5 at 3:41 to cut the lead to one. The Bison got another key goal with less than half a minute, scoring with 18 seconds left for a 7-5 advantage entering the final quarter. Although Gartner scored what would be his final goal one second after a Bucknell ejection to make it 7-6, that would be all the Bears could muster, as the Bison scored three unanswered goals, including yet another with less than 30 seconds remaining, for a 10-6 final.
In addition to his game-high four goals, Gartner drew eight ejections to bring his two-game total to a stunning 14. Adams and Weintraub had three steals apiece, while Holland had eight saves, including two on breakaways, and two steals.
Sunday's tilt between Brown and Johns Hopkins will start at 10:30 a.m.
