Men's Water Polo: Long Beach holds off Diablo Valley 10-8 to advance to State Championship Final

Freshman Lovro Miocevic shoots in LBCC's 10-8 win over Diablo Valley in the state championship semifinals (Photo courtesy CCCAA)
Freshman Lovro Miocevic shoots in LBCC's 10-8 win over Diablo Valley in the state championship semifinals (Photo courtesy CCCAA)
Posted: Nov 21, 2014

Sacramento, CA -- The Long Beach City College Men's Water Polo team, the reigning California Community College Athletic Association State Champions, will get a chance to defend their State Title on Saturday. Long Beach, the #2 team from the South, outlasted North #1 Diablo Valley College 10-8 in the State Semi-Finals on Friday afternoon.

Diablo Valley would strike first on Friday, scoring two of the first three goals of the contest. Long Beach didn't rattle though, using a big second quarter to take control of the match. After trailing by the lone goal through the first eight minutes of play, Long Beach answered with a 5-1 second quarter, getting two goals from Marino Fatovic and a goal each from Jack Ellinthorpe, Andrew Reynolds, and Ivo Ivanis to go up 6-3 at the break.

The Vikings of Diablo Valley would work their way back into the game in the third quarter outscoring Long Beach 4-2. Mark Urban of Diablo Valley would fuel the comeback scoring the first goal of the third quarter and tying the game up at 7-7 with 1:20 left in the third. Long Beach's Max Taylor broke the tie though, scoring with 42 seconds left in the third period to put Long Beach back up by one as they headed into the fourth.

In the fourth, Ellinthorpe gave the Long Beach Vikings some breathing room with a score with 5:40 to go in the game. Diablo Valley would cut it back to one with 3:36 to go after a score by Antoine Lena, but Taylor's goal with 2:44 would provide all the breathing room Long Beach needed to advance back to the State Championship clash.

Long Beach will take South #1 Golden West College in Saturday's State Championship Final at 3:00 PM in a rematch of last year's state title game. Golden West defeated North #2 West Valley College 10-8 in the other semifinal. 

Golden West (25-1 overall) has won two of three meetings this season against Long Beach. LBCC (24-3) has handed the Rusters their only loss this season.

LINE SCORE
TEAM                                    1Q          2Q          3Q          4Q          TOTAL
Long Beach                         1              5              2              2              10
Diablo Valley                      2              1              4              1              8

GOALS
Long Beach: Ellinthrope (2); Reynolds (1); Ivanis (1); Taylor (2); Fatovic (4)
Diablo Valley: Vuja (1); Urban (3); Lena (4)

Recap courtesy California Community College Athletic Association