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Forest Gray
Tatum Benson
11
Fresno Pacific FPU (0)
20
Winner Air Force AF (0)
Fresno Pacific FPU
(0)
11
Final
20
Air Force AF
(0)
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Fresno Pacific FPU 3 1 5 2 11
Air Force AF 3 7 8 2 20

Game Recap: Men's Water Polo |

Green, Gray Record Hat Tricks in Loss to Air Force

SANTA CLARA, Calif.-Despite holding an early lead, the Fresno Pacific Sunbirds (3-16 overall) conceded nine straight goals before ultimately falling 20-11 to the Air Force Falcons (16-9 overall) Friday afternoon at the Julian Fraser Memorial Tournament held in the Sullivan Aquatic Center.

The Sunbirds were the first to grab the advantage as Forrest Gray found the back of the cage three minutes into the game.

William Green added to the lead on an assist from Nikita Kravstov to give FPU a 2-0 lead five minutes in.

But Air Force capitalized on an exclusion against FPU to find its first goal just two minutes before the end of the quarter. Air Force tied it on another power play a minute later.

Gray scored his second goal of the quarter to put FPU back in front 3-2 but Air Force tied it at 3 before the end of the 1st quarter.

Gray also opened the second quarter with his third goal of the game, giving Fresno Pacific a 4-3 lead.

Air Force responded a minute later, evening the game at 4, before taking its first lead on the next possession to make it 5-4.

The Falcons would make it seven straight goals, in all, to take a 10-4 lead into halftime.

Air Force added two more goals at the start of the second before Pietro Cattano snapped the streak to make it 12-5, Falcons.

Cattano added another as did Green while Kravstov and Andrew Duncan each added their first goals, but the Sunbirds were outpaced by six more tallies from the Falcons, which made it 18-9 at the end of three quarters.

Green completed his hat trick in the fourth, but Air Force duplicated its 20-10 advantage from the first time the two teams met before William Hoyle added an FPU goal.

Fresno Pacific had a higher shooting percentage than its opponents, but Air Force generated twice as many shots.

And while each team created nine exclusions, Air Force capitalized on six of them while FPU converted just three.

Green and Gray each completed their sixth hat tricks of the season.

The Sunbirds move on in the Julian Fraser Memorial Tournament on Saturday, heading over to San Jose to take on Long Island University at 8:00 am before playing Princeton at 2:40 pm.
 
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