Gwangju, South Korea - July 15 - The USA Men's National Team opened play at the FINA World Championships with a convincing 16-7 win over Kazakhstan.
Alex Bowen (Santee, CA/Stanford/NYAC) led the way with four goals while
Johnny Hooper (Los Angeles, CA/California/LA Premier),
Hannes Daube (Long Beach, CA/USC/North Irvine WPC) and
Ben Hallock (Westlake Village, CA/Stanford/LA Premier) all scored three goals in the victory.
Alex Wolf (Huntington Beach, CA/UCLA/Bruin) went the distance in net turning aside nine shots. Team USA returns to action on Wednesday against Croatia at 9:50am local time (8:50pm et/5:50pm pt July 16). The match will air LIVE on Olympic Channel and stream live by
clicking here (cable authentication required).
Team USA jumped out to a 2-0 lead early on goals from Hallock and
Luca Cupido (Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy/California/Olympic Club) before Kazakhstan got on the board. Hooper and Daube followed with goals and the United States built a 4-1 lead after one. In the second quarter they delivered four more goals as Bowen, Hallock, Hooper and Daube all connected for an 8-3 lead at intermission.
The third quarter was the closest as Kazakhstan scored twice but the United States answered with three more goals to take a commanding 11-5 lead to the fourth quarter. Daube, Hallock and Hooper all scored again in the fourth quarter to secure the victory at 16-7. Team USA did a lot of damage on the advantage going 8/11 on power plays and 3/3 on penalties. Kazakhstan was 5/12 on power plays and 0-1 on penalty shot attempts.
For more on the USA roster at the FINA World Championships,
click here for the roster announcement. For more on broadcast coverage,
click here.
Scoring -
Stats
USA 16 (4, 4, 3, 5) A. Bowen 4, B. Hallock 3, J. Hooper 3, H. Daube 3, L. Cupido 1, M. Farmer 1, M. Irving 1, M. Vavic 1
KAZ 7 (1, 2, 2, 2) Y. Medvedev 1, M. Shakenov 1, R. Pilipenko 1, M. Aubakirov 1, M. Zhardan 1, S. Shvedov 1, Y. Verdesh 1
Saves - USA - A. Wolf 9 - KAZ - P. Lipilin 5
6x5 - USA - 8/11 - KAZ 5/12
Penalties - USA - 3/3 - KAZ 0-1
