O'FALLON, Ill. -- The Augustana Vikings men's water polo team earned a season-opening victory on Saturday, defeating the McKendree Bearcats on the road by a score of 11-5.

Rhys Lomax was the first Viking to score in the game, putting one into the back of the net on a power play less than two minutes in. After the Bearcats evened the score moments later, the Vikings rattled off three straight goals from three different players, beginning with Alden Brinkmeier around the four-minute mark to put Augie back out in front. Ian Palmroos and Jake Fisher accounted for the next two for Augustana, but McKendree got one back with just seconds to spare to end the quarter. The Vikings led 4-2 after eight minutes of action.

Each team scored just once in the second. Brinkmeier notched his second tally of the afternoon on a penalty shot to put the Vikings back up two, but McKendree answered with one with three minutes left in the half to pull within one. Neither team scored the rest of the half and Augustana took a 5-3 lead into the halftime break.

The Vikings pulled away with a fast start to the second half. Stevan Rasic collected his first goal of the game two-and-a-half minutes in before another score from the Vikings 30 seconds later moved the margin out to four. Lomax added his second around the two-minute mark and the Vikings held onto an 8-4 advantage heading into the final frame. Rasic totaled two more goals in the fourth and Oskar Bannister capped off another 3-1 quarter differential for the team with the Vikings' final score to complete the 11-5 win.

Rasic led the way with three goals, while Bannister added two goals and three assists. Declan Hutton earned the win in net with 14 saves.

Augustana will be back in action next weekend at the Air Force Rare Air Invite in Colorado.