USA Men Beat Hungary 15-9 At 2023 World Aquatics World Cup Qualifier

Team USA captain Ben Hallock scored once in the 15-9 win

Zagreb, Croatia - March 13 - The Team USA Men beat Hungary 15-9 at the 2023 World Aquatics World Cup qualifier earlier today! Max Irving was named Player of the Game with five goals while Luca Cupido added three and goalkeeper Adrian Weinberg notched eight saves in net. Team USA wraps up round-robin play in Group A tomorrow against Italy at 3:30pm et/12:30pm pt. The game can be streamed live on the World Aquatics YouTube channel with live stats available from World Aquatics.

After almost four minutes of scoreless action, Zoltan Pohl finally rang the register to get Hungary on the board first. On the next possession, Marko Vavic converted a penalty attempt for the United States to tie the score. A minute later, Gergo Zalanki fired one in for Hungary before Tyler Abramson snuck a score past the goalkeeper. Late in the quarter, Luca Cupido gave Team USA its first lead of the contest followed by Max Irving doubling the advantage on a power play skip shot as the Americans led 4-2 after one.

On the opening possession of the second period, Cupido looked off the defense and then stuck another one in the back of the net for a three-goal lead. Defensively, Hannes Daube leapt up for a steal which led to Vavic's second score of the day on the other end and a 6-2 Team USA advantage. A few minutes later, Irving lobbed one up for Ben Hallock who slammed home the redirect. Daube and Cupido closed the period with a couple of scores on either side of a Marton Vamos penalty shot to wrap up a dominating eight minutes for the United States, who led 9-3 at halftime.

Team USA started the third exactly where they left off in the second, earning a penalty shot and sending Irving to the 5m line to knock it down. The Hungarians tried to match the Americans on the other end, but Vamos was denied by goalkeeper Adrian Weinberg on the penalty attempt. Hungary stayed persistent and earned another penalty, this time converting as Zalanki found the back of the cage. Midway through the quarter, Hungary left Irving too much space on the outside and he drilled another one for an 11-4 advantage. Ryder Dodd got one to fall on the next possession before Zalanki scored again for his third of the contest. Twenty seconds later, Daube sent a strike into the top left corner of the goal for the United States. With eight minutes to go, Team USA held a 13-5 lead.

Daniel Angyal began the final frame with two scores for Hungary as they tried to climb back into this one. Irving would not let Hungary's momentum last much longer as he put home his fourth score of the game for Team USA to push in front 14-7. Gergo Fekete got on the board for Hungary, who had their best scoring quarter of the game within the first two and a half minutes of the fourth. After that, it was Irving again for Team USA. With under three minutes to play, Zalanki scored again for the Hungarians but it was not enough as the United States defeated Hungary, 15-9.