USC
Pepperdine
Men's Water Polo Wins Overtime Thriller
September 22, 2001 | Men's Water Polo
Sept. 22, 2001
LOS ANGELES - Sophomore Predrag Damjanov scored at 1:13 of the third overtime period Saturday as the No. 2 USC Trojans recorded a 9-8 victory against the Pepperdine Waves at McDonald's Swim Stadium in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation contest. Damjanov scored his third goal when he took a wide-open pass on the right side and scored past Pepperdine goalie Michael Soltis. USC improves to 3-0 overall (3-0 in MPSF play) while Pepperdine falls to 1-1 overall (1-1 in MPSF play).
USC took the advantage in the see-saw contest in the first half on goals by Ivan Babic and Erik Healy as the Trojans kept the Waves off the scoreboard. Pepperdine changed the momentum when Jesse Smith scored at 0:41 of the third period to make it a 2-1 lead.
Both teams exchanged goals and Damjanov scored his first goal at 2:10 of the third for a 4-2 USC lead before Pepperdine stormed back. Greg Lonzo scored the second of his five goals at 2:32 of the third on a very sharp angle from the left side as the Waves scored three unanswered goals. Jordan Keitel's power-play goal at 4:51 of the fourth gave Pepperdine its first lead of the afternoon.
Damjanov, last week's MPSF/Mikasa Player of the Week, tied the match at 5-5 with a shot in close at 5:14 of the fourth to complete the scoring in regulation.
USC took the momentum again with three unanswered goals as the Trojans held a three-goal lead with only 2:40 remaining in the second overtime period, but the Waves took advantage of two defensive miscues. Two major fouls allowed Lonzo to score back-to-back penalty shots at 0:45 and 1:11 of the second overtime period for the Waves. Matt McPherson tied the match at 2:28 when USC goalie Bozidar Damjanovic could not handle a soft shot on the right that trickled in for the goal.
Soltis made 13 saves in goal for the Waves while Damjanovic also made some big stops, registering nine saves for the Trojans.
USC has now won six straight matches against Pepperdine.
USC will host No. 1 Stanford next Saturday (Sept. 29) at McDonald's Swim Stadium at 1 p.m. in another MPSF contest.
1st 2nd 3rd 4th OT OT OT Final Pepperdine 0 0 3 2 0 3 0 8 USC 1 1 2 1 2 1 1 9
Pepperdine - Greg Lonzo 5, Matt McPherson, Jordan Keitel, Jesse Smith USC - Predrag Damjanov 3, Ivan Babic, Erik Healy, Nick Andrejic, Jeff Larson, Brett Reynolds, Nenad Praporski
Saves: USC-Bozidar Damjanovic 9, Pepperdine-Michael Soltis 13
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