NORTON, Mass. — The Wheaton College (Mass.) men's water polo team was defeated by No. 2 Johns Hopkins University this morning in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation action at Balfour Natatorium on the Wheaton campus in Norton, Mass.
The Lyons slip to 1-14 overall and 1-4 in league play, while the Blue Jays have won five of their last six and improve to 16-5 and 5-0.

Johns Hopkins owned a 47-34 shooting advantage and came up with 11 of the 12 steals in the game.

First year attacker Hudson Kosiba (Birmingham, Mich.) and sophomore two-meter Michael Ruemelin (Chicago, Ill.) each scored a pair of goals in addition to an assist for Wheaton. Sophomore utility player Spyros Rapsomanikis (Kerkyra, Greece) tallied four points on a goal and three assists and senior goalie Dylan Boccali (Ventura, Calif.) made nine saves.

Sophomore utility player Phillip Long (Cupertino, Calif.) tallied six points, including four goals, to lead the Blue Jays. He also added two steals and a field block and junior attacker Ethan Babel (San Francisco, Calif.) netted three goals to go with a pair of assists and a steal. First year utility player Brody Mars (Newport Beach, Calif.) netted three goals and added an assist and a steal, while senior attacker Daniel Palfi (Mission Viejo, Calif.) found the back of the net three times in addition to a steal. Graduate student keeper Kyle Pearson (Key Biscayne, Fla.) finished with 16 saves for the visitors.

Johns Hopkins scored the first five markers of the morning, capped by a goal from Palfi with 3:50 left in the opening quarter. The Lyons got on the board at the 2:58 mark on a score from Ruemelin to make it 5-1. The Blue Jays started to separate themselves with a 7-1 run, fueled by a pair of goals each from Mars and Long, to take a 12-2 advantage with 7:37 to go in the third quarter

Kosiba found the back of the net for Wheaton to cut the deficit to 12-3 at the 6:43 mark of the third quarter, but Johns Hopkins scored eight of the next nine goals, including a pair from Babel, to extend the margin to 20-4 and put the game out of reach for the visitors. Sophomore two-meter defender Josh Vander Wagen (Brookfield, Ill) connected for a goal during the stretch for the Lyons. 

Rapsomanikis and Kosiba tallied back-to-back markers for Wheaton to make it 20-6 with 5:27 remaining in the contest, before the Blue Jays ripped off the next six goals to take their largest lead of the game at 26-6. First year goalie Nic Boyer (Toledo, Ohio) scored at the buzzer to cap the scoring for the Lyons.

Johns Hopkins returns to action later today when it takes on Washington & Jefferson College at 5:30 p.m., while Wheaton plays Pennsylvania State University Behrend at 4:00 p.m. with both games taking place at Balfour Natatorium. 

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