Palomar men's team splashes past Southwestern in home opener

SAN MARCOS (9-05-2018) -- Coach Kody Moffatt's Palomar men's water polo team is off to a 3-0 start after winning big 21-8 over Southwestern on Wednesday at Wallace Memorial Pool in its Pacific Coast Athletic Conference and home opener.

Rielly Gillum (four goals), Nate Taylor (three goals) and Jeremy Paiz (three goals) led the Comets' relentless offensive attack against the Jaguars.

Kevin McCollum had two goals, two assists and a for steals in the victory. Terrin Davis contributed two goals and two assists, and Truman Irion also had two goals.

Michael Mendiola went the entire game in goal for Palomar and finished with 14 saves and three assists.

Zane Bentley led the Comets in steals with five.

Palomar opened its season at the Chaffey College Mini-Tournament over the weekend with victories over Caltech 10-9 and Santa Monica College 1-7.

In the Caltech game, Paiz and Taylor each scored three goals and McCollum added two goals. Thomas Preston recorded 12 saves in goal. 

Taylor tallied (five goals), Davis (three goals) and McCollum (two goals) were multiple scorers vs. Santa Monica. DeSpain and Mendiola each had five saves in the cage.

Palomar travel to the Golden West College Tournament over the weekend, playing Rio Hondo at 11 a.m. and Golden West at 2:30 p.m. on Friday and two teams to be determined on Saturday.