Freshman Giorgio La Rosa (Catania, Italy) scored a game-high nine goals while freshman Nick Wood (Newport Harbor HS) totaled 10 saves in goal to help lead the Long Beach City College men's water polo team to a 17-9 win over Diablo Valley College in the semifinals of the 2015 California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) Water Polo State Championship at Pasadena City College on Friday.
LBCC advances to Saturday's state championship final and will take on rival Golden West College at 12:30 p.m. as the Vikings look to capture the program's 10th state title. Golden West was an 18-10 winner over West Valley College in Friday's other semifinal.
Long Beach and Golden West will face off in the state final for the third straight year. The Vikings have played in the state championship match in five of the previous seven seasons. LBCC last won a state title in 2013.
"I'm excited to play for a state championship tomorrow," said LBCC interim head coach Dave Kasa. "We just got to get the guys prepared and motivated so we can do the best that we can tomorrow."
LBCC went 1-4 against Golden West in 2015. The Vikings' lone win, a 9-8 triumph, came in a non-conference game in Huntington Beach on October 17.
On Friday, Long Beach trailed early before rallying to take the lead for good in the second quarter.
Diablo Valley stunned LBCC by taking a 3-0 lead with 2:22 to play in the first quarter. Freshman Teo Dadic (Dubrovnic, Croatia) finally got Long Beach on the scoreboard with his goal at the 1:17 mark to send the Vikings into the second quarter trailing by two.
"Down 3-0 in the first quarter I knew not to panic," said Kasa. "I didn't want to show the guys that there was a need to be panicked. We just had to stick with our process and get back into the game one possession at a time. And it worked out that way. We didn't do anything different in the second quarter, just made some adjustments defensively."
Long Beach took over in the second before La Rosa and the Vikings put the game out of reach in the third. Trailing DVC 5-3, Long Beach rallied for four straight goals to close out the half. Dadic's goal with 4:30 to play in the second tied up the game at five before La Rosa scored at the 4:04 mark to put LBCC out in front for good.
La Rosa was absolutely lights out in the third quarter, scorching DVC for five goals. Holding a narrow 8-6 advantage, La Rosa went on to score four unanswered goals to put the Vikings up 11-6.
"That was a phenomenal performance in the third quarter by Giorgio," said Kasa. "That guy is an artist. He can do it all --- he can shoot from the perimeter, score on the counter attack, score from the post. Clearly he showed he was the best player in the water today."
Dadic scored three goals for Long Beach while sophomores Frankie Cervantes (Granite Bay HS), Max Taylor (Las Vegas, NV), and Conor Shuey (Albuquerque, NM), as well as freshmen Marton Gorbics (Budapest, Hungary), and Jack Larson (Esperanza HS) all scored once.