Sept. 22, 2007

The Santa Clara men's water polo team made an immediate impact in the first day of the Slugfest tournament. The Broncos defeated La Verne 16-5 in the morning game, and then took down #19 Redlands in the afternoon, their first win over a ranked opponent this year. Tommy Hendrickson led the Broncos with six goals combined for the day.

In the game against La Verne, the team spread out it's scoring as it has a tendency to do in wins, with 11 players recording goals. Hendrickson led the team with three to go along with a steal and an assist. Tommy Kelly scored two, as well as Anderson Clendininn, his first goals of the season. Liam Farrel, Mark Soares, Jeff Welch, Mike Detoy, Andrew Fitch, Jake Diserio, and Matthew Martin all had one goal apiece.

Robert Callahan and Chris Jones split time in goal, with Callahan recording five blocks and Jones blocking four shots.

The story of the day for the Broncos however was the afternoon game, the biggest win against Redlands in head coach Keith Wilbur's tenure at Santa Clara. "It's always been that we've won by one or two goals or lost," said Wilbur. "Today the guys totally came out to play. This was the best game of the year for us by far."

Josh Early led the way for the Broncos with four goals, his second four goal game in three games. "Josh had another hot shooting game for us," said Wilbur.

Hendrickson had his second straight three goal game to go with three assists and a steal. Liam Farrell scored twice, had three assists, and a steal as well.

Also scoring for the Broncos were Welch, Stephen Hobbs, Tommy Kelly, and Mike Sorgenfrei, all with one goal.

Although the team scored in the double digets for the fourth straight game, one of the biggest keys to the win was defense. "It may not show up in the stats, but a huge part of the game was the great perimeter defense by Tommy Kelly and Andrew Fitch," said Wilbur.

Luke Oda came up big early too, drawing three kickouts in the first half alone while recording a steal.

Callahan played a stellar game in the cage, blocking 11 shots with two steals and an assist.

The Broncos finish up Slugfest tomorrow with games against Claremont at 11 a.m. and Whitter at 2:30 p.m.