Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 LA JOLLA, Calif. — The No. 11 UC Santa Barbara Men's Water Polo went 1-1 across their first two matches of the season at the Triton Invitational on Saturday, dropping a match against No. 1 UCLA, 13-7, in the morning but winning decisively against Concordia Irvine, 22-9, in the afternoon. Brock Zamanian tallied hat-tricks in both of the Gauchos' matches on the day, and Dom Brown brought home the first five-goal haul of his collegiate career against Concordia.
 
FROM HEAD COACH WOLF WIGO
"We played a strong game with UCLA but unfortunately made a few errors that led to easy goals that could have been avoided," Wigo said. "The guys came back really strong against Concordia and finished the day strong, with great performances from Leif Lacy and Dom Brown."
 
NO. 11 GAUCHOS 7, NO. 1 UCLA 13
Santa Barbara stayed close with the Bruins through the first quarter of action, with Adam Gyenis opening the scoring early in the first frame. Luke Bachler added on with a five-meter penalty goal in the first as well, but the Gauchos were trailing, 4-2, when the horn sounded.
 
Freshman Danilo Dragovic netted his first collegiate goal in the second quarter of the game, but UCLA led by four at halftime. Zamanian caught fire after halftime, scoring all three of his goals in the second 16 minutes, but the Gauchos were not able to catch up to last year's National Championship runners-up.
 
NO. 11 GAUCHOS 22, CONCORDIA IRVINE 9
Santa Barbara led from start to finish in their afternoon match against the Golden Eagles, with Luke Redoutey opening the scoring. Kai Ross scored his first collegiate goal in the game, with Nico Furneax, Brown and Landon Lassahn following suit later on. Griffin Pieretti, Ryan McManigal, Sam McKenzie and Hayes Beamon all tallied their first scores of the season as well, and the trio of Dragovic, Zamanian and Gyenis each made it two straight games with a goal. Brown stole the headlines with a five-goal haul.
 
UP NEXT
The Gauchos are back in action in La Jolla again on Sunday, taking on UC Merced and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps at 12 p.m. and 4 p.m. respectively.