THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — The No. 12 UC Santa Barbara Men's Water Polo team picked up a pair of victories in Thousand Oaks Saturday morning, defeating Cal Lutheran and Westcliff in back-to-back matches, 16-7 and 19-9 respectively. Luke Bachler tallied hat-tricks in both games, with Adam Gyenis and Brock Zamanian adding three-goal hauls against the Kingsmen and Leo Ohannessian tallying a triple against the Warriors as well.
 
No. 12 UC SANTA BARBARA 16, CAL LUTHERAN 7
It was not the prettiest start to the morning for Santa Barbara, as despite goals from Bachler and Danilo Dragovic, the Gauchos trailed by one after the first quarter against Cal Lutheran. But Bachler's late-first-quarter goal turned out to be the first in an 11-0 run for Santa Barbara which stretched all the way into the fourth quarter.
 
While Levi Lentin worked a shutout second in the Gaucho goal, Gyenis scored twice and Zamanian once to put Santa Barbara up, 5-3, at halftime. Leif Lacy took over in the cage to start the third and repeated Lentin's trick as the Gauchos put together a second consecutive 3-0 frame. Bachler completed his hat-trick with two goals in the quarter, with Dom Brown adding a goal between them.
 
The Gauchos' strong run continued into the fourth, with Gyenis scoring once to complete his hat-trick, Dragovic adding his second of the morning and Zamanian scoring twice to finish his hat-trick before the Kingsmen got another goal. After that, Will Coons scored, Griffin Pieretti netted twice and Brown put home his second of the day to cap off an 8-goal fourth for the Gauchos.
 
No. 12 UC SANTA BARBARA 19, WESTCLIFF 9
Having clearly woken up in their first action of the day, Santa Barbara wasted no time taking the lead in the second game, scoring the first three goals of their game against Westcliff, courtesy of Luke Redoutey, plus Brown and Zamanian. The Warriors did come within one, but two goals from Bachler had the Gauchos up by a pair when the horn sounded to end the first quarter.
 
Ohannessian started the quarter with two goals in 40 seconds, then Sam McKenzie fired home as Santa Barbara tightened its grip on the game. Hayes Beamon and Shane Hoover joined the party shortly after McKenzie, then Pieretti scored to cap the first of two 6-1 quarters for the Gauchos in the game and give Santa Barbara an 11-4 halftime lead.
 
Gyenis and Brown both scored in the third but Westcliff clawed a couple goals back, getting to within four goals in the early stages of the fourth quarter, but Santa Barbara scored the final six goals of the game to re-assert their dominance. Bachler kicked it off with his third of the game, then Landon Lassahn dented the twine. Ohannessian finished his hat-trick with just over two minutes to play, then Beamon, Pieretti and McKenzie each cashed in their second goals of the game before the final buzzer.
 
UP NEXT
UC Santa Barbara will begin the month of October by heading to San Jose for the second of two Big West-WCC Challenge events on Oct. 5. The Gauchos will face No. 9 San Jose State at 9 a.m. on Saturday, then play No. 18 Santa Clara at 4 p.m.