Courtesy: USA Water Polo
Tbilisi, Georgia – June 27 – The USA Men’s National Team picked up their first win in Georgia on day two of the FINA World League Super Final with a 15-7 win over Japan. Ben Hallock scored four goals, Hannes Daube added three goals and Alex Wolf recorded 15 saves in net. Team USA closes out group play tomorrow against Georgia at 8:30am et/5:30am pt. Live stats will be available for each match by clicking here, with live streaming available of the semifinal and final day of competition via FloSports, by clicking here (subscription required).
Japan scored the first goal of the match for a 1-0 lead only to see Team USA respond with three straight goals. Daube, Hallock and Luca Cupido all delivered for a 3-1 lead with 4:20 to play in the first quarter and the United States would never trail again. Japan closed to within one at the end of the first quarter but Hallock put the lead back to two early in the second period. Japan followed with two straight goals to even the score at 4-4 with 4:25 to play in the first half. Again, the United States ran off three straight goals, this time from Max Irving, Marko Vavic and Hallock for a 7-4 halftime edge.
The third quarter saw the Japanese once again rally, as Yusuke Inaba scored two of his three goals on the day to make it 7-6 with 3:10 left in the quarter. Daube, Irving and Ben Stevenson answered with a trio of scores for a 10-6 lead going into the final eight minutes. There would be no more rallies after that as the Team USA defense clamped down allowing just one more goal. On the offensive end they finished strong with five more goals. Johnny Hooper closed out the offensive outburst with two goals over the final 2:21 to seal the win.
Team USA went 2/7 on power plays but took advantage on penalties going 4/6. Japan went 1/8 on power plays and 1/1 on penalties.
Scoring – Stats
USA 15 (3, 4, 3, 5) B. Hallock 4, H. Daube 3, J. Hooper 2, L. Cupido 2, M. Irving 2, M. Vavic 1, B. Stevenson 1
JPN 7 (2, 2, 2, 1) Y. Inaba 3, M. Takata 1. T. Suzuki 1, M. Shiga 1, S. Adachi 1
Saves – USA – A. Wolf – 15 JPN – K. Tanamura 7
6×5 – USA – 2/7 JPN – 1/8
Penalties – USA – 4/6 – JPN 1/1
Is that Ryan Lochte?!