The West Valley men's water polo team added a few bricks to its pathway to the 2022 postseason with a pair of convincing wins over NCAA D1 opponents San José St. and Santa Clara Saturday at the West Valley Aquatics Center. The Viking wins were all the more impressive as both the Spartans and Broncos played their first-team players throughout both games.

In their 11-10 win over San José St., WVC jumped out to a 5-1 first-quarter lead, thanks to three Ante Buzov goals, and then held on in the final 24 minutes for the win. The Vikings held a 6-5 lead at the half and had an 8-7 advantage heading into a decisive fourth quarter.

Buzov made it 10-9 with a pair of goals at 7:21 and 4:24, but former Viking Nikola Nicolic evened it up at 3:23. Lucas Romaguera blasted in the game-winner with 1:46 remaining.

Viking keeper Kai Seed stopped 12 SJSU shots for his third win of 2022. Buzov finished with a game-high six goals on seven shots, while Romaguera found the back of the cage three times on three shots. Hamish Bonnar and Gojko Kapovic each had a single tally for the Vikings.

The Vikings topped Santa Clara 12-7 in the afternoon affair thanks to a 4-1 fourth period. The Broncos grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first minute on a Cody Ferguson, but a pair of Buzov goals made it 2-1, WVC, after one. Bendeguz Aubeli scored with :41 left in the second to give WVC a 5-3 advantage at the break. The Vikings maintained their two-goal lead at the end of the third on a Togan Ozbek score at 1:17.

The fourth was all West Valley as Carlos Olat, Romaguera, Ozbek and Aubeli scored to counter a solo goal from Ferguson for the final 12-7 score.

Aubeli, Buzov and Romaguera paced the Vikings with two goals each, and Seed notched 11 saves to move to 4-0 on the year.

West Valley welcomes 11 squads from across California September 9-10 for the 57th Nyquist Invitational.