USA Men Take Group Title At Pan Ams With 24-1 Win Over Puerto Rico

Marko Vavic scored five times in the win over Puerto Rico

Lima, Peru - August 6 - The USA Men's National Team claimed the Group A title at the 2019 Pan American Games following a 24-1 win over Puerto Rico. Hannes Daube (Long Beach, CA/USC/North Irvine WPC) and Marko Vavic (Rancho Palos Verdes, CA/USC/Trojan) scored five goals each to pace the USA attack with Alex Wolf (Huntington Beach, CA/UCLA/Bruin) recording 10 saves in net. Team USA finished group play at 3-0 and now moves on to the quarterfinal round on Thursday where they will meet Peru at 6pm local time/4pm pacific. No live streaming is available but fans can follow @USAWP on Twitter for live match updates. For more on the Pan American Games including schedules and results, click here.

Chancellor Ramirez (Pasadena, CA/UCLA/NYAC) got the scoring started for Team USA with two straight goals to open the match, part of a five goal output in the first quarter. Vavic followed with his first goal before Max Irving (Long Beach, CA/UCLA/NYAC) and Ben Hallock (Westlake Village, CA/Stanford/LA Premier) closed the quarter with goals.

In the second period Team USA once again piled up five goals. Alex Obert (Loomis, CA/Pacific/NYAC) started the scoring followed by the duo of Vavic and Daube teaming up for four goals to take a 10-0 lead into halftime. The offense was just getting started for the United States as seven more goals were scored in the third quarter. Obert scored twice in the quarter, the second tally giving Team USA a 14-0 lead with 2:35 to play in the period. Daube followed by scoring two in a row to make 16-0 and then Hallock closed out the period with a goal for a 17-0 lead after three.

Puerto Rico broke through in the fourth quarter with their first goal of the match but Team USA answered with seven more goals of their own. Irving scored twice early in the period to help build the lead and then Vavic finished things off scoring two goals late on the way to the 24-1 win.

Team USA went 8/10 on power plays and 3/3 on penalties while Puerto Rico went 1/5 on power plays with no penalties attempted.

Scoring - Stats
USA 24 (5, 5, 7, 7) M. Vavic 5, H. Daube 5, A. Obert 4, M. Irving 4, C. Ramirez 4, B. Hallock 2
PUR 1 (0, 0, 0 1) M. Montanez 1
Saves - USA - A. Wolf 10 - PUR - B. Avila 3
6x5 - USA - 8/10 - PUR - 1/5
Penalties - USA - 3/3 - PUR - 0/0

Marko also tells us what it is like to be at the Pan Am Games for the first time.

"The dining hall is the size of an aircraft hangar." ???? pic.twitter.com/YccnEa8eiN
— USA Water Polo (@USAWP) August 7, 2019