Strong Effort Falls Short for Pirates at Home

The VC men's water polo team kept their game with visiting Los Angeles Valley close for a half before succumbing to the Monarchs 18-8 Wednesday at the Ventura Aquatic Center. The Pirates were tied after one quarter and trailed 8-6 at halftime. Owen Cugnoni scored four goals to lead VC and Scott Wagner had three. Thomas Vels had the other goal for the Pirates.

LAVC opened up the early 2-0 lead but a score by Cugnoni broke the ice for Ventura with 3:19 remaining in the opening period. The Monarchs responded with a goal before Cugnoni sandwiched a pair of goals around a score by S. Wagner to even the count after eight minutes of play.

The teams battled it out in the second quarter, with LA Valley scoring twice, only to be equalized by Ventura. S. Wagner and Cugnoni each found the inside of the cage again in the stanza to make the score 6-6 heading to the final minute of the first half. Unfortunately, LA Valley tallied a pair of opportunistic goals before intermission to lead 8-6 at the break.

Valley continued their hot streak in the third quarter, scoring the first three goals before Wagner netted a score to end the skid at the 4:58 mark. Vels followed with another goal and the Pirates pulled to within 11-8 with 3:37 remaining. Unfortunately, the Pirates would not find the inside of the cage for the rest of the game as LAVC scored the final seven goals of the game.

S. Wagner added a pair of steals to his scoring total while Luigi Travi, Ramon Rodriguez, Zane Torpey and Matthew Ogonowski  all added assists. Stephen McNaughten had 13 saves in goal.

Ventura next travels to the Santa Monica Tournament on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 13 and 14.