Sept. 10, 2006

Los Angeles, CA (Sept. 10) - For the third straight game, Burns Recreation and Aquatics Center was filled to capacity as Loyola Marymount University men's water polo was looking to extend its winning streak to four games in the early part of the 2006 season. However, the Lions struggled to find offense against the second-ranked USC Trojans, who earned a 12-4 win on Sunday afternoon.

In front of another capacity crowd of 802, the Lions fell down early and could not recover. LMU falls to 4-2 on the season while USC goes to 2-0.

USC scored the games first three goals as LMU never got closer the rest of the way. Senior Ben Easton cut the lead to 3-1 with 1:46 remaining. However, USC scored the next five goals to go up 8-1 with 6:04 remaining in the third quarter.

Senior Matt Reynolds cut the lead to 8-2 with LMU's second goal of the game with 3:43 remaining in the third quarter. USC scored twice more before freshman Cody Walter scored his first goal at home. Tim Heafner scored the Lions fourth goal with 48 seconds left in the game.

USC was lead by Thomas Hale's three goals. LMU senior goalie Ian Elliott finished with another 16 saves.

LMU and USC could meet each other again next week as both head to the NorCal Invitational Sept. 16-17. USC is the number one seed in group B while LMU is the number two seed. The Lions will play number three seed and 10th-ranked UC Santa Barbara at Stanford University Belardi Pool at 9:20 a.m. USC plays Santa Clara at 8:00 a.m. The winners from that group will play 2:40.