July 16, 2020 – Zagreb’s Mladost defended the title of the Adriatic Regional League, defeating the host Jug AO Dubrovnik 15-11 (3-2, 3-5, 7-2, 2-2) in the final played at the open swimming pool in Dubrovnik’s Gruz.
HRT reports that Mladost reached their second title in this competition primarily with a great third quarter, which they won 7-2. The team from Zagreb managed to neutralize Loren Fatovic, who scored as many as five goals in the first two quarters, while the other players of the home team were utterly harmless in the attack.
On the other hand, Harkov filled Popadic’s net with three goals and Cuk with two long-range shots. Perhaps the critical moment of the game happened in the middle of the third quarter, more precisely with the 10-8 result for Mladost, when the referees assessed that after Papanastasiou’s shot, the ball did not cross the goal line, although the impression is that the Jug center scored.
The most efficient player for Mladost was Serbian player Milos Cuk with five goals, Konstantin Harkov added three, Alexander Bowen and Lovre Miloc scored two, and Cosmin Radu, Luka Bukic and Josip Vrlic scored one goal each. Loren Fatovic scored six times for Jug AO, though no one else scored more than one goal, including Filip Krzic, Danil Merkulov, Marko Zuvela, Hrvoje Benic and Paulo Obradovic. Ivan Marcelic was also great at the gates of Mladost with 14 saves.
Jug AO and Mladost will soon start the final series of the playoffs for the title of Croatian champion. The champion will be the team that is the first to achieve three victories, and the first game on the program is on Saturday in Dubrovnik.
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