Long Beach City College captured its ninth state championship after an exhausting 11-9 overtime-victory against rival Golden West College on Saturday in the state final of the 2013 California Community College Athletic Association Water Polo Championship at Riverside City College.
Freshman goalie Lazar Andric (Herceg-Novi, Montenegro) was named state tournament most valuable player as he posted a season-high 18 saves to lead the Vikings' defense in their championship win. Andric came up with the big plays when the Vikings needed it most, including making saves on a pair of Golden West five-meter penalty shots.
LBCC had beaten Golden West in three out of four games prior this season including just last week in the Southern California championship game, but LBCC head coach Chris Oeding knew winning a fourth time wouldn't be easy.
"Playing a team four times during the season and winning the majority of those games, my concern was that we would come out and be complacent and Golden West would come out with nothing to lose," Oeding said. "And I think we showed that in the first quarter."
Golden West scored the first three goals to jump out to a 3-0 lead, but Vikings were able to stop the run and go into the second quarter down by two, 5-3.
"There were some poor decisions on our part that let them go up 3-0 that early," said Oeding. "I was just trying to get my guys to realize there was a lot of game left and we could weather the storm."
But a major turning point for the Vikings occurred in the second quarter when Lazar came up with a stop on a Golden West penalty shot, which Oeding thought was huge for his squad.
"Lazar's block on that play really gave us energy and enabled us to shave that lead down and keep them within striking distance."
Long Beach eventually tied up the game midway through the second but trailed 6-5 at halftime.
After an offensive show in the first half, the game turned to a defensive battle. The two teams exchanged goals in the third setting up an amazing fourth quarter.
Freshman Ikko Saito (Cerritos HS) scored the fourth of his game-high five goals followed by a goal by freshman Andrew Reynolds (Los Alamitos HS) to give the Vikings an 8-6 lead with 4:37 left. LBCC appeared to be on its way to the win, but Golden West rallied to score three straight, including the go-ahead goal with 1:54 left in regulation.
With just one minute remaining, the Vikings stole the ball and then tied the game thanks to a goal by sophomore Jason Lee (Cerritos HS) with just 26 seconds left. On Golden West's final possession, the Vikings stole the ball once again but couldn't get a good shot off as the teams ended the fourth tied 9-9.
After a scoreless first overtime period, the Long Beach offense came alive once again in the second. Freshman Ivo Ivanis (Dubrovnic, Croatia) scored the go-ahead goal with one minute left and Saito iced the championship victory with a goal with 26 seconds remaining.
Long Beach ended its state championship season with a 27-2 overall record and closed out the year on an amazing 20-game winning streak. Golden West was denied its third straight state title and closed its season with a 24-4 record with all four of their losses coming from the Vikings.
For Oeding and coach Dave Kasa, it was the duo's third state championship after winning it all previously in 2006 and 2007. Following the game, Oeding was named State Coach of the Year as well as Saito and freshman Blake Grove (Newport Harbor HS) joining Andric on the All-State Tournament team.