The No. 13 UC Santa Barbara Men’s Water Polo team got its first taste of overtime on Friday, needing an extra seven minutes and change to knock off hosts Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 11-10, in the opening match of the Inland Empire Classic. 

Luigi Canepa scored the game-winner, one of three goals for him. Kai Ross also had a hat-trick on the day, leading the scoring in Santa Barbara’s afternoon rout of Fresno Pacific, 15-5. The center from Connecticut also picked up a goal in the morning action to finish the day with four.

UCSB 11, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 10

The Gauchos and Stags were trading blows from the very start of the morning, with Ross putting Santa Barbara on the board only for the hosts to answer with two. Finn Genc responded with two of his own to put the Gauchos back on top, 3-2, at the end of the first quarter, but the back-and-forth just carried on.

The Stags scored twice to re-take the lead, then Camren Simoncelli wrestled it back with two goals in the final two minutes of the half.
 
Each team scored twice in the third, then CMS tied the game and took an 8-7 lead with five minutes and change left in the fourth. That lead lasted all of 17 seconds before Genc brought the Gauchos back level. Both teams’ defenses held for the remainder of regulation, and the game headed to overtime, level at eight goals apiece.
 
In the first overtime, Santa Barbara looked well on its way to finally wrapping up the win, with Landon Lassahn and Canepa providing the first two-goal lead of the game for either team. But in the second half of OT, the Stags got two back, tying the game again with 28 seconds left.

That deadlock sent proceedings to a golden goal overtime, in which neither team scored on its first possession. Wyatt Pieretti and the Gaucho defense kept the Stags out again on their second, then Canepa finished the game with his third goal of the morning.

UCSB 15, Fresno Pacific 5

The afternoon action was much more straightforward. Goals from Jake Reinke, Thomas Colpo and Sloan Brown gave the Gauchos a 3-0 lead after the first quarter, and after a couple of Sunbird scores, Santa Barbara rattled off a stretch of 10 unanswered goals from the second quarter into the fourth.

Ross scored twice in that span, and he had another goal earlier in the second quarter to make a hat-trick in the contest. Charlie Johnson also scored twice on the 10-0 run, as did Kyle Franks. Hayden Tully, Noah Loo, Lassahn and Reinke rounded out the scorers in that decisive sequence.
 
Fresno Pacific scored three times in the fourth, though they were never going to threaten the Gauchos’ lead. Colpo added his second goal of the game before the final buzzer as well.

Santa Barbara stays in Claremont for two more games on Saturday, opening the day against Pomona-Pitzer at 9:30 a.m. and ending it against Occidental at 3:30 p.m.

On Sunday, the Gauchos play at home for the first time this year, hosting No. 3 Stanford and Cal Lutheran at Santa Barbara High School.