PODGORICA, Montenegro, June 16. THE USA Men's Senior National Team stopped Italy 10-6 on the first day of action at the FINA Men's World League Super Final. Nine different players scored in the victory for the United States who will take on Japan tomorrow.
As for this match the United States got off to the good start opening up a 3-2 lead after the first quarter and a 5-3 lead at halftime. In the third stanza the Italians tried to close in with three goals but Team USA countered with four goals to maintain a 9-6 lead. The final quarter saw Team USA post a shutout, while scoring one more goal to pull away with the 10-6 victory.
Jesse Smith led all scorers with two goals and that was added to by Peter Varellas, Brian Alexander, Jeff Powers, Tony Azevedo, Ryan Bailey, Tim Hutten, JW Krumpholz and Justin Johnson. Merrill Moses was solid in net recording 12 saves. Team USA was efficient on the power play going 4/8 on player advantages.
"It's a solid way to begin the tournament. We had good balance on offense with nine guys scoring. We have a goal to hold a team to 6 goals per game; we accomplished that today with very good team defense," said USA Head Coach Terry Schroeder.
Scoring
USA: 10 (3,2,4,1) J. Smith 2, P. Varellas 1, B. Alexander 1, J. Powers 1, T. Azevedo 1, R. Bailey 1, T. Hutten 1, J. Krumpholz 1, J. Johnson 1
ITA: 6 (2,1,3,0)
Saves – USA – M. Moses 12
6×5 – USA 4/8
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