St. Francis Brooklyn Stays Alive at CWPA Water Polo Championships

Annapolis, MD. An impressive 8-7 come-from-behind win against Bucknell in the second round of the Collegiate Water Polo Association Championship proved that despite a subpar 2014 campaign, the St. Francis Brooklyn men’s water polo team is not ready to say goodbye to it’s season.

Trailing 13th-ranked Bucknell 5-1 at halftime Friday at the Naval Academy’s Lejeune Hall , the Terriers—as they have done many times in their run to two consecutive Eastern titles—rallied for the win, scoring seven goals in the second half while shutting down the higher-seeded Bison.

“We showed a lot of heart, and that with laser focus we had in 2nd half carried us to victory last night,” said SFC head coach Srdjan Mihaljevic. ”I hope we can build on this in today’s semi final vs Brown.”

St. Francis was playing the second of two games in the first day of the East’s top collegiate water polo tournament, having beaten Washington and Jefferson, a first-time CWPA Championship entrant, by 13-6 earlier in the day.

Perhaps it was the challenge posed by two matches in one day or perhaps it was the season-long quest to replace Igor Mladenovic, SFC’s superb goalie who led them to three Eastern titles in four years, including the 2012 and 2013 championships, but the Terriers were quickly down 3-0 halfway through the 1st period, causing Coach Mihaljevic to call for time.

Senior Vuk Vujosevic scored the first of his three goals early in the second period to cut his team’s deficit to two, but two more scores on St. Francis freshman goalie Nikola Zivkovic left the Terriers facing their earliest exit from the Easterns in more than a decade.

After intermission, the Terriers saved their season by outscoring the Bison 4-0 in the 3rd period to knot the game at 5-all. Fittingly, the SFC comeback was started by a newcomer, Bora Dimitrov, and finished by Vujosevic, the team’s emotional leader. Dimitrov, a junior transfer who leads SFC with 48 goals, scored early in the third to make it 5-2 Bucknell, then followed with another goal to give the Terriers new life.

When junior Nathan Kotylak and Vujosevic hit for goals two-minutes apart later in the period, the match was tied, giving St. Francis momentum going into the final eight minutes of the match.

As in years past, the Terriers would not be denied. Both teams scored to make it 6-6, then with less then three minutes left Dimitrov put a shot past Bison goalie Keegan Williams to put St. Francis ahead for good. Two minutes later Vujosevic put SFC up by two with a flip shot over Williams, which made a late goal by Bucknell’s Ratimir Babic meaningless.

The upset win puts 19th ranked St. Francis in a semi-final match-up today at 4:30 p.m. against Brown, who earlier this month snapped the Terriers streak of nine Northern Division Championships in ten years (St. Francis did not compete in 2009). The Terriers’ main rival in the CWPA’s Northern Division, the Bruins have beaten SFC’s twice this season, including an 11-8 loss on November 2nd in Brooklyn Heights.

“Today’s game is the most important game of the season and it won’t be easy,” said Mihaljevic. “Brown is an exceptionally good team and we will have our hands full for 4 quarters. If show the poise and focus from last night we’ll have a chance to come on top.”

The SFC / Brown winner will face either Princeton, the East’s top ranked team, or host Navy in the CWPA Championship match on Sunday at 4 p.m.

PHOTO CAPTION: St. Francis Senior Vuk Vujosevic in action
PHOTO CREDIT: Collegiate Water Polo Association