USA Men Top Kazakhstan 19-7 Behind Nine Goals From Bonanni

Yokohama, Japan – May 12 – It was the Bret Bonanni (Huntington Beach, CA/Stanford/NYAC) show on Thursday at the FINA Men’s Intercontinental Tournament as the USA attacker buried nine goals to lead Team USA to a 19-7 win over Kazakhstan. The tourney high thus far for goals in a game helped give the United States their third straight win with Olympic host Brazil looming on Friday. Merrill Moses (Palos Verdes, CA/Pepperdine/NYAC) and McQuin Baron (North Tustin, CA/USC/Regency) continued to split time in net recording eight combined saves. The match against Brazil is set for 4pm local time/12am pt. Live streaming is available by clicking here. To watch a replay of the USA-Kazakhstan match, click here.

(Report via FINA.org)

Bret Bonanni of USA, and Kazakhstan danger man Rustam Ukumanov, scored seven of the eight first-quarter goals in a sharp-shooting start to the day’s second clash. Bonanni netted four times, and Ukumanov a hat-trick, in the opening exchanges.

Ukumanov also netted the Kazakhs’ only goal of the second period, during which the Americans pulled 9-4 clear on the way to maintaining their flawless start with a 19-7 win.

Bonanni eventually won their personal shootout, bagging nine goals — the tournament’s best single haul so far — to Ukumanov’s four.

Brazil lie in wait for USA, and coach Dejan Udovicic highlighted defensive improvement and better focus, compared withWednesday’s too-close-for-comfort 17-14 win over Japan.

“I think we made a little progress but we need to continue to improve our game because we want to raise the bar as high as possible. We’re trying to build the level of our game to the point where we can compete against anyone,” he said.

Team USA went 8/15 on power plays while Kazakhstan went 6/12 with neither team attempting a penalty shot.

Scoring
USA 19 (5, 4, 3, 7) B. Bonanni 9, J. Mann 3, A. Roelse 3, J. Samuels 2, L. Cupido 2, T. Azevedo
KAZ 7 (3, 1, 1, 2)
Saves – USA – M. Baron 5, M. Moses 3
6×5 – USA – 8/15 – KAZ – 6/12
Penalties – USA – 0/0 – KAZ – 0/0