WATER POLO USA Men Surge Past South Africa 20-3 To Open 2-0 At Tokyo Olympic Games

Tokyo, Japan - July 27 - The U.S. Olympic Men's Water Polo Team moved to 2-0 in Group A action with a convincing 20-3 win over South Africa. Ben Hallock scored four goals with Ben Stevenson and Johnny Hooper adding three goals each in a balanced attack that saw nine different players score. Alex Wolf made his Olympic debut recording 13 saves in net. A replay of the match can be watched by clicking here. The match will also replay as part of Olympic coverage on NBC Sports Network starting at 9:30am et/6:30am pt on July 27. Next up for Team USA is a match with Italy on July 29 in Tokyo at 2pm local time/1am eastern/10pm pacific on July 28. The match will air LIVE on USA Network with a live stream available by clicking here. The match will air on replay on NBC Sports Network as part of Olympic coverage starting at 8pm et/5pm pt on July 29.

Alex Bowen continued his hot start in Tokyo delivering the first goal of the match for a 1-0 lead. Luca Cupido followed not long after to make it 2-0 with 5:01 to play in the first quarter. Ben Hallock finished off the scoring in the first period with a goal with less than a minute left as a trio of Rio returners supplied all the goals in the opening eight minutes. The second quarter was where Team USA put the match away. A nine goal outburst left no doubt as first-time Olympian Ben Stevenson powered home three goals to lead the barrage. Johnny Hooper scored two in the quarter and Hannes Daube had the final word with 21 seconds left for a 12-1 lead at halftime.

South Africa scored first to open the third quarter but Team USA answered with goals from Bowen, Hallock and Dylan Woodhead to build a 15-2 going to the fourth quarter. Daube started the scoring in the fourth, Hallock added two more goals and Team USA cruised to the 17 goal victory. The United States went 8/10 on power plays and 2/3 on penalty shots while South Africa went 1/4 on power plays with no penalty shots attempted.

Scoring - Stats

USA 20 (3, 9, 3, 5) B. Hallock 4, B. Stevenson 3, J. Hooper 3, D. Woodhead 2, H. Daube 2, A. Bowen 2, M. Irving 2, L. Cupido 1, M. Vavic 1

RSA 3 (0, 1, 1, 1) J. Evezard 1, Y. Margro 1, N. Badenhorst 1

Saves - USA - A. Wolf 13 - RSA - G. May 5

6x5 - USA - 8/10 - RSA - 1/4

Penalties - USA - 2/3 - RSA - 0/0

Greg Mescall

Director of Communications, USA Water Polo

 

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