No. 1 Cal had to survive a wild one Friday night, and sophomore attacker Tomas Perrone delivered the final blow.
Perrone scored his fifth goal with 40 seconds left in the second overtime, pushing the Bears past No. 5 Fordham 20-19 at Spieker Aquatic Complex. Cal needed every bit of it after a game that kept swinging back and forth until the end.
The win was Cal’s sixth in a row and moved the Bears to 15-4. It also capped a perfect home slate at 8-0. The Bears reached the top spot in the national rankings for the first time in three seasons after last weekend’s wins over UCLA and USC.
Fordham, meanwhile, took its second loss in 25 matches. The Rams head to second-ranked Stanford on Sunday.
Cal had control for stretches but never got to coast. The Bears went into halftime trailing 9-8, then carried an 11-10 edge into the fourth period. When Dom Brown scored with 5:04 left in regulation, Cal stretched the lead to 15-10 and looked set to finish it off.
Fordham had other ideas. The Rams scored three times in the final 1:54, and Andras Toth forced overtime by scoring with 1 second left to tie it at 16.
The first overtime opened with Fordham striking first, but Perrone answered with 16 seconds remaining to even the score at 17-17.
Cal then moved back in front in the second overtime. Kai Inoue and Maddox Arlett scored to make it 19-17 with 1:30 left.
Toth answered again for Fordham with 1:14 remaining, but Perrone came through once more, finishing off an assist from Inoue for a 20-18 Cal lead with 40 seconds left. Toth scored again with 20 seconds remaining, but the Bears held on from there.
Perrone finished with five goals and an assist. Inoue added three goals and five assists, Beso Akhvlediani scored three times and added two assists, and Brown and Seth Bousfield each had two goals.
Cal closes the regular season next Friday on the road against Stanford. The Bears beat the Cardinal 12-8 in Berkeley last month. The MPSF championship tournament is scheduled for Nov. 20-22 in Los Angeles.