Men’s Water Polo: Vikings cap 4-0 weekend with 15-14 sudden-death overtime win at Golden West

Sophomore Nathan Pinkney's (Granite Bay HS) goal in sudden death overtime lifted the Long Beach City College men's water polo team to a 15-14 win over Golden West College in the championship final of the Golden West Tournament on Saturday.

The victory capped a 4-0 weekend at the tourney and extended the defending-state champion Vikings' winning streak to 13 games. LBCC avenged a 7-6 early-season loss to Golden West and with the win Long Beach will likely take over the No. 1 spot in the state rankings.

Long Beach is now 18-2 overall and 4-0 in the South Coast Conference with just Wednesday's (Oct. 29) regular-season finale at home against Los Angeles Trade-Tech College left before LBCC begins its postseason run.

In Saturday's win against Golden West, Long Beach trailed 8-6 at halftime and was down 11-7 after three quarters. But the Vikings rallied for four goals and held the Rustlers scoreless to force overtime.

Golden West went up early, posting a pair of goals in the opening OT period. But once again, Long Beach rallied back outscoring Golden West 3-1 in the second overtime to force sudden death.  

In sudden death on Long Beach's first possession of the period, Pinkney came through with the big two-meter step out shot to shock the host Rustlers and give the Vikings the win.

Freshman James Applegate (Wilson HS) led LBCC with four goals in the victory over Golden West while sophomore Marino Fatovic (Dubrovnic, Croatia) added three goals.

Earlier in the day, Long Beach cruised to a 12-2 win over Cuesta College. Fatovic led the Vikings with four goals. And on Friday, the Vikings picked up a 13-6 victory over Grossmont College and rolled to an 11-7 win over West Valley College. Freshman Lovro Miocevic (Zagreb, Croatia) combined for six goals while sophomore Andrew Reynolds (Los Alamitos HS) scored four goals on Friday.