NorCal Tournament Central

STANFORD, Calif. --- Junior Bojan Hrlec scored with 29 seconds remaining in overtime to lift sixth-ranked UC Irvine past No. 5 UC Santa Barbara, 12-11, in the fifth-place game of the NorCal Tournament at Stanford's Avery Pool Sunday.

Hrlec's goal, his fourth of the game, capped a wild, back-and-forth tussle between the MPSF rivals.  Seniors Mitch Wise and Nick Pfeil added three goals each as UCI improved to 10-1 on the season.

Junior Alex Kazmier had 17 saves in goal for the 'Eaters, who went 3-1 in the tournament.

The game was tied 5-5 at halftime before the Gauchos scored four times in the third quarter to take a 9-7 lead entering the fourth.

Hrlec (7:41) and Wise (5:48) scored back-to-back goals to pull the 'Eaters even at 9-9. 

Hrlec then scored an extra-man goal with 3:55 left in regulation to put UCI up 10-9, but UCSB's Evan Dellinger tied the game on his third goal of the game with five seconds remaining.

In the first three-minute overtime session, Dylan Baliani scored at the 1:59 mark to give the Gauchos an 11-10 lead before Hrlec answered with 53 ticks left to knot the score at 11-11, setting up his game-winner in the second three-minute extra period.

"We had an outstanding team defensive effort with Winston Newland quarterbacking the team," said eighth-year UCI head coach Marc Hunt.

UCI returns to action Sept. 29-30 in the SoCal Tournament at Santa Barbara.


UC Irvine                      3 – 2 – 2 – 3 – 1 – 1 --- 12
UC Santa Barbara          3 – 2 – 4 – 1 – 1 – 0 --- 11

UCI:  Bojan Hrlec 4, Nick Pfeil 3, Mitch Wise 3, Jacob Mourer, Brian Pickford.

UCSB:  Evan Dellinger 3, Matt Gronow 2, Jake Miller 2, Eric Van de Mortel 2, Dylan Baliani, Brian Shoemaker.

Saves:  Alex Kazmier (UCI) 17;  Myles Christian (UCSB) 8.

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