LOS ANGELES – Early offense proved decisive for the Cal men's water polo team Saturday as the Bears jumped out to the lead and never looked back to pick up a 17-4 win over Penn State Behrend and advance to the third-place match of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Championships hosted by UCLA.

With the win, Cal moves into the 11 a.m. match on Sunday to take on Stanford. USC and UCLA will play for the conference title at 1 p.m. Both matches will be televised by Pac-12 Networks and on Pac-12.com.

One day after dropping a nail-biter against the host Bruins, Cal (19-4) got rolling right away against the Lions. First-period goals by Johnny Hooper, Farrel South, Jordan Hoover and J.D. Ratchford staked the Bears to a 4-1 lead after eight minutes of action.

That type of offensive output continued in the second period. Pedro Stellet slotted one home while warding off a defender and Conor Neumann buried a penalty shot to make it 6-1. Odysseas Masmanidis scored twice before halftime and both South and Hooper scored their second goals of the match to help Cal take a 10-1 lead into the break.

Cal kept the pressure on in the third quarter and a big period from Hoover helped the Bears break away even further. The redshirt freshman found the net three times in the period and goals by Hooper and South added to a 15-3 lead. Neumann and Connor Reid scored in the fourth and Cal finished off the victory. Hoover led the way with four goals while South and Hooper each had a hat trick. Bernardo Carelli drew the assignment in goal and made 13 saves.