USA Men To Play For Gold At Pan American Games With 12-2 Win Over Cuba
10/27/2011 12:00:00 AM
Guadalajara, Mexico - October 27 - The USA Water Polo Men's National Team will play for Gold at the Pan American Games following a 12-2 victory over Cuba in the semifinal round at the Scotiabank Aquatics Center. A high energy start that saw Team USA jump out to a 4-0 lead after one quarter and a 6-0 lead at halftime carried over to the second half in a result that was never in doubt. Jeff Powers (San Luis Obispo, Calif./UC-Irvine/Newport WPF) led all scorers with three goals while Merrill Moses (Palos Verdes, Calif./Pepperdine/NYAC) posted seven saves in a defensive effort that saw Cuba convert just 1/9 power play opportunities. The United States will meet Canada in the final on Saturday at 5pm cst with a bid to the 2012 Olympic Games on the line. Team USA has won every Pan American Games since 1995.
Ryan Bailey (Long Beach, Calif./UC-Irvine/Newport WPF) got things started in the first quarter firing home a pass from Jesse Smith (Coronado, Calif./Pepperdine/NYAC) for a 1-0 lead less than two minutes into the match. The USA offense started to churn again with less than three minutes in the period as Peter Varellas (Moraga, Calif./Stanford/Olympic Club), Smith, and Powers each found the cage to build the four goal advantage. Comfortably leading 6-0 after halftime the United States went up 7-0 late in the third quarter before Cuba broke through with consecutive scores to draw within five. Team USA answered immediately with a Powers goal with just three seconds left in the period to go up 8-2 headed to the fourth. In the final period the United States added four more goals from Smith, JW Krumpholz (Santa Ana, Calif./USC/NYAC), Beaubien, and Brian Alexander (Santa Ana, Calif./UCSB/Olympic Club) to cruise to victory by ten. The United States went 3/7 on power plays and 1/2 on penalty shots while Cuba was 1/9 and did not attempt any penalty shots.
Saturday's Gold Medal match is schedule to be streamed live by clicking here.
Scoring - Scoresheet
USA 12 (4, 2, 2, 4) J. Powers 3, J. Smith 2, B. Alexander 2, R. Bailey 1, P. Varellas 1, L. Beaubien 1, T. Hutten 1, J. Krumpholz 1
CUB 2 (0, 0, 2, 0)
Saves - USA - M. Moses 7
6x5 - USA - 3/7 - CUB 1/9
Penalties - USA 1/2 - CUB 0/0
Flash Quotes
"We are ready to play in the finals, it doesn't matter who we play. We came here to win a Gold Medal and we are hoping to do that on Saturday." Merrill Moses, USA Goalkeeper
"For us our goal is to be very strong on offense and defense this tournament, its been coming along slowly and today we were able to put together a complete game in the semifinal. We are ready to play whoever is victorious today and we are confident if we can play our best game we'll have a very good chance to win." Layne Beaubien, USA Defender
On playing with more energy
"I think they've just been disappointed in themselves as much as anything, they've been talking. They've been talking amongst themselves that it is time to get things going and get some better energy into it and that starts obviously with the defense. When the defense is playing well everything starts to work better for us." Terry Schroeder, USA Head Coach
Mens' National Team