After playing its first 11 matches of the season on the road or at neutral sites, the Concordia men's water polo team earned a 12-10 victory over Fresno Pacific in its home opener Friday afternoon.

The Eagles flew out to a 6-2 lead by halftime thanks to some solid team defense. The visiting Sunbirds would cut into the margin but CUI never surrendered the lead after setting the tone early.

Patrik Zsiros led the charge for the Eagles with four goals and an assist.  Christian Bowley chipped in with another solid all-around game with four assists and three steals.

"First half, we really held them on defense," said Bowley. "Second half, we kind of let up a bit but then we got back into it and held on at the end."

"We definitely played strong defense in the first half and our intensity was a big thing," said senior Dan Castagnola. "That's what we want to do. Hopefully build on that and play a whole game defensively like that for the whole way."

Fresno Pacific entered the match winless but refused to roll over in the second half.  The Sunbirds rallied to cut the lead but the Eagles were able to fend off their late charge and run out the clock.

"We have a lot of weapons on offense and so defense is what we've been working on the last few weeks especially," said Zsiros.

"We worked really hard as a team and we were just looking to keep pressing with our defense," added Messan Moore who contributed two goals to help the cause.

One of the unsung heroes was Concordia goalkeeper Alfredo De La Mora who helped direct the defense from his usually perch and made a couple of key saves that wound up looming large down the stretch.

"Some good saves from Alfredo really fired the team up and then we held on there at the end and kept putting pressure on them," said head coach Dreason Barry. "Good experience for our first one at home."

"We just kept moving on offense and had good passes all around," added Bowley. "We countered a lot more today and that led to a lot more goals. Felt really good having that home crowd support."

Concordia returns to action Saturday in the Lancer Joust at Cal Baptist University.  The Eagles face the host Lancers Saturday at 11 a.m. before facing USC for a third time this season at 2 p.m.

The next home match for Concordia is Friday, Oct. 5 at Northwood High School against UC Davis at 12 p.m.