Spoon’s Career-High Six Goals Lead ‘Eaters to 23-7 Victory Over Occidental

Saturday, September 27

Riverside, CA

11:20 AM

UC Irvine

Occidental College

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Occidental	2	4	0	1	7
UC Irvine	4	8	5	6	23

Spoon’s Career-High Six Goals Lead ‘Eaters to 23-7 Victory Over Occidental

September 27, 2025 | Men's Water Polo

Box Score

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - Ethan Spoon's career-high six goals fueled a season-high 23 tallies for the 'Eaters as they defeated Occidental College 23-7 on the final day of the Lancer Joust in Riverside.

The Tigers kept the game close in the first period of action, trailing by two heading into the second, before the 'Eaters exploded for eight second period goals to widen the gap to 12-6 at the half. The Anteaters allowed just one goal in the second half, while netting 11 of their own to seal the 23-7 victory.

BY THE NUMBERS: Sophomore Ethan Spoon recorded a career-high six goals to lead the 'Eaters offense. Maddox McEwen and Samuel Otta each recorded a hat trick.

Wyley Dale, Cole Francisco, and Luka Krstic each added two goals for the Anteaters. Alex Lopez, Johann Thrall, Dylan Rosmann, Ben Atkinson, and Jayson Hubbard each netted one, for a combined season-high 23 goals for UCI.

Zane Derrod led the Tigers with three goals.

HOW IT HAPPENED: The 'Eaters took a quick four goal lead at the 2:50 mark with tallies from Maddox McEwen, Cole Francisco, and back-to-back goals from Wyley Dale. The Tigers found the back of the net twice before the horn to cut the 'Eater lead to 4-2 heading into the second.

Alex Lopez struck first for the Anteaters on the power play before the Tigers netted one to cut UCI's lead to 5-3 at the 6:49 mark. The 'Eaters then went on a 4-0 run, kicked off with a tally from Luka Krstic and a penalty shot from McEwen and capped with a goal from Ethan Spoon and another from McEwen to increase the lead to 9-3 at the 2:02 mark. The Tigers briefly halted the run with a goal at the 1:53 mark before Samuel Otta found the back of the net on a penalty shot for UCI. The Tigers added a tally before Spoon and Otta scored back-to-back goals for the 'Eaters. Occidental netted the final goal of the half to cut the Anteaters lead to 12-6 at the horn.

The 'Eaters went on a 5-0 run in the third quarter, with tallies from Ben Atkinson, Dylan Rosmann, Krstic, Otta, and Johann Thrall, to increase their lead to 17-6 heading into the final period of action.

Spoon kicked off the scoring in the final frame before the Tigers got one back to make it 18-7 at the 7:32 mark. Spoon erupted for three goals in a row before Francisco and Jayson Hubbard netted the final goals of the game to seal the 23-7 victory.

UP NEXT: The 'Eaters are back in action at 2 p.m. to take on Biola in the final game of the Lancer Joust in Riverside.