Paris, France - July 30 - After falling behind 3-2 early, the U.S. Olympic Men's Water Polo Team put together a 7-0 run to pull away from Romania for a 14-8 victory in their second match at the Paris Olympic Games.
Hannes Daube and
Alex Bowen scored three goals each in the victory with
Adrian Weinberg recording 14 saves in net. Team USA returns to action on Thursday when they meet Greece at 10:30am local time/4:30am et/1:30am pt. The match will air LIVE on E! and stream on Peacock.
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Romania had a strong start to the match taking a 1-0 lead early and holding an edge for most of the quarter. Every time Team USA would come back in the first, Romania had an answer until
Johnny Hooper scored late in the third to tie the match at 3-3. That would open the offensive floodgates for Team USA as they launched that 7-0 run and would go on to outscore Romania 7-1 over the next two quarters. In the second quarter Team USA took the lead in the opening minute on a Daube goal for a 4-3 edge. A few minutes later
Ryder Dodd followed with his first Olympic goal on a penalty shot for a 5-3 edge. Then it was
Max Irving's turn on the counter attack to make it 6-3 with under four minutes to play and that would be the margin at halftime.
Daube hit again early in the third quarter, this time on a penalty to make it 7-3 in favor of Team USA. Then it was back to Irving followed by
Ben Hallock for a 9-3 cushion with 3:41 left in the period. After Romania scored to stop the bleeding, Daube drilled his third of the day for a 10-4 margin going to the fourth. Team USA went up early in the final period on the first Olympic career goal for
Chase Dodd. Romania started to battle back scoring four of the next five goals to pull within four at 12-8 with 1:43 to play.
Alex Bowen made sure things got no closer as he ripped off two straight scores, giving him three in the period as he cemented the 14-8 win.
Team USA went 5/9 on power plays and 2/2 on penalties while Romania went 3/9 on power plays and did not attempt any penalties.
Scoring -
Stats
USA 14 (3, 3, 4, 4) H. Daube 3, A. Bowen 3, J. Hooper 2, M. Irving 2, A. Obert 1, B. Hallock 1, R. Dodd 1, C. Dodd 1
ROM 8 (3, 0, 1, 4) V. Georgescu 3, S. Colodroschvi 3, M. Lutescu 1, A. Neamtu 1
Saves - USA - A. Weinberg 14 - ROM - M. Tic 5, E. Dragusin 1
6x5 - USA - 5/9 - ROM - 3/9
Penalties - USA - 2/2 - ROM - 0/0
