Dec. 17, 2015 Newport Beach, CA - December 17 - The USA Men's National Team played their first home game since this past June and came up short against defending Olympic champion Croatia 13-10. Team USA rallied by scoring three straight goals in the fourth period to tie the game at 10-10 but Croatia scored the final three goals of the match to secure the win. Alex Bowen (Santee, CA/Stanford/NYAC) scored four goals to lead the USA offense while Merrill Moses (Palos Verdes, CA/Pepperdine/NYAC) and Drew Holland (Orinda, CA/Stanford/Stanford) split time in net. The two teams will meet again on Sunday at USC at 2pm. Tickets are on sale and can be purchased by clicking here.
Croatia jumped out to a 2-1 lead before Josh Samuels (Villa Park, CA/UCLA/NYAC) found the net late in the period for a 2-2 game after the first period. The teams traded goals in the second period before Croatia started to pull away going up 7-4 with ten seconds left. Bowen scored with just one second left in the period to make it a 7-5 match at intermission.
Croatia led 9-6 after three periods and then Team USA began to chip away. Bowen scored two more goals as Team USA scored four of the next five goals to tie the match at 10-10. Bret Bonanni (Huntington Beach, CA/Stanford/Stanford) scored with 4:40 left to even the match only to see Croatia score three straight to secure the victory.
Team USA went 3/11 on power plays and did not attempt a penalty while Croatia went 2/5 on power plays and 2/3 on penalty shots.
Scoring - Scoresheet
USA 10 (3, 2, 1, 4) A. Bowen 4, A. Obert 1, A. Roelse 1, J. Samuels 1, T. Azevedo 1, B. Bonanni 1, T. Dunstan 1
CRO 13 (3, 4, 2, 4) S. Sukno 3, M. Jokovic 2, L. Loncar 2, A. Petkovic 2, P. Muslim 2, L. Bukic 1, D. Buric 1
Saves - USA - D. Holland 2, M. Moses 0 - CRO - J. Pavic 8
6x5 - USA - 3/11 - CRO - 2/5
Penalties - USA - 0/0 - CRO - 2/3
