The SRJC men’s water polo team was unable to make a comeback after an offensive first quarter by Sierra College.

The first quarter was the Josh Collison show. He scored four times in three and a half minutes. Two minutes later he had a good position on a Bear Cub defender down in Bear Cub territory and scored at 3:26.

Collison led the Wolverines to a 12-10 victory over the Bear Cubs on Oct 20. The Bear Cubs fell to 8-8 and 2-2 in the Big 8 Conference.

Collison did not play in the second quarter. He received a much-needed rest since he was the entire offense for the Wolverines in the first quarter. It was not until the second half that Collison missed a shot. He finished the night with six goals.

Bear Cub freshman Jarrod Ebeling and freshman Brett Van Patten had goals in the first quarter. SRJC had a rough stretch in the second quarter. Devon Jones scored with 16 seconds left before halftime to make it 7-3 in favor of the Wolverines.

In the third quarter the Bear Cubs played more evenly with Wolverines scoring twice. Sophomore Jake Saville made an outside shot at 5:15 in the third, and then Sophomore Nicholas Johnson took advantage of his position down low and put one on the back of the goal 45 seconds later.

The fourth quarter was a shoot out. The JC scored five times to close the gap. The last two goals in the final two minutes pulled the Bear Cubs within two, but the deficit was too large to overcome. Saville and Johnson scored their second goals of the night too little too late as the Wolverines ran out the clock. Also scoring in the fourth was Dan Crase, Danny Gaynor and Devon Jones.

It was the first conference win for the Wolverines. The Bear Cubs hope to improve their conference record before the Big 8 Tournament against Diablo Valley on Oct. 29. The Big 8 Conference Tournament takes place Nov. 4-6 at Diablo Valley College.