Salvador Orozco and Milos Popovic celebrated Senior Night with five goals apiece as No. 2 seed Salem University rebounded from a tournament-opening loss with a 21-7 victory over fourth-seeded Mercyhurst University in day one of the 2019 CWPA Division II Men's Water Polo Eastern Championship Saturday at Salem University Pool. Popovic's five goals against Mercyhurst and six goals earlier in the day in the Tigers' 17-14 loss to third-seeded McKendree University put his school record career total at exactly 300 goals.
 
Prior to the game, seniors Orozco, Popovic, Robert Juhas and Michael Rojas were honored during Senior Day ceremonies. The lone home event of the 2019 season marks the home finale for the Tiger seniors.
 
Pre-game ceremonies also included the awarding of the Dr. Keith Bullion Memorial Scholarship, presented to a junior biology major with a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.5. This year's winner is Salem volleyball student-athlete Nina Isaac.
 
Salem (10-10) broke the game open early, jumping out to a 7-0 lead at the end of the first period. Juhas put the Tigers on the board less than two minutes into the contest and Popovic added a goal 43 seconds later. Popovic scored again with 3:29 left and the Tigers went on to score four more goals in the final 2:05 of the period.
 
The Tigers extended their lead to 9-0 on goals by Saequan Miller and Orozco before Mercyhurst (6-15) spoiled Salem's shutout bid on a power play goal with 3:38 left in the half. After Petar Leontijevic scored 14 seconds later, the two teams combined for seven goals in the final three minutes as Salem took a 14-4 lead into halftime. The margin never fell below double digits in the second half.
 
Popovic scored his milestone 300th goal with 1:53 left before halftime.
 
Michael Rojas finished with seven assists, coming within one assist of tying the school single-game mark set twice last year by Inigo Velasco. Leontijevic finished with four goals as the Tigers posted a .525 shooting percentage. Goalkeeper Julen Alonso recorded 18 saves.
 
Salem fell behind McKendree 3-0 before Leontijevic's goal with 97 seconds left in the first period ignited a Tiger rally. The first half saw three ties before Popovic's goal with 1:27 left in the second period gave Salem its first lead at 6-5. After McKendree forged another tie on a penalty shot 14 seconds later, Popovic's goal with two seconds remaining put the Tigers back on top 7-6 at halftime.
 
McKendree scored the first two goals of the third period to regain the lead before Manuel Soto Estela scored a power play goal with 4:43 left for the game's fifth tie. But McKendree broke the 8-8 tie 20 seconds later as the Bearcats took the lead for good.
 
After a goal by Juhas pulled Salem within 11-10 at the end of the third period, McKendree answered with a three-goal run in the first two minutes of the fourth period to take its biggest lead of the contest. Salem never got any closer than three goals as McKendree goalkeeper Ori Scanlon made saves on three Tiger shot attempts in the final two minutes.
 
Rojas and Estela finished with four assists apiece for the Tigers.
 
In Saturday's other two contests, top-seeded Gannon University outlasted Mercyhurst 16-14 in double overtime and defeated McKendree 21-18.
 
After day one of the round-robin tournament, Gannon tops the standings with a 2-0 mark, while Salem and McKendree are tied at 1-1 and Mercyhurst is at 0-2.
 
The Championship concludes Sunday as McKendree faces Mercyhurst at 10 a.m., followed by Salem vs. Gannon at 11:30 a.m.