Men's Water Polo: Vikings knock off Golden West 12-11 in overtime for 10th state championship

For the No. 2 South seeds at the 2015 CCCAA State Water Polo Championships, it was a case of not what you did in previous matchups, but how you finished that mattered. In the men's championship final, Long Beach City College, after losing four times against one win v. SoCal champion Golden West during the season, used a late overtime goal by Teo Dadic to beat the Rustlers, 12-11.

The men's title game was another exciting chapter in perhaps the greatest rivalry in California Community College athletics between LBCC and Golden West in water polo. Long Beach jumped ahead 6-2 after one quarter, but Golden West chipped away and took an 8-7 lead on the fifth of six goals by Dalton Kenefick with 6:07 left in the third quarter.

Golden West led 10-8, but the Vikings stormed back with three straight goals capped by Dadic's long-range shot to regain the advantage at 11-10. But the Rustlers answered with 36 seconds left in regulation on Allesandro Valania's goal that sent it to OT.

While GWC was able to get off six shots in the 6-minute OT, Long Beach had not taken a single shot in the extra period until Dadic received a pass from Tim Aakhus and rifled in the game-winning goal with just 25 seconds left.

 

It was Dadic's fourth goal, but more important was the freshman Croatian's defense which included four field blocks out of the team's eight during the game.

"We concentrated in practices coming into the tournament on field blocking, and I know that was our season high today," said LBCC head coach David Kasa, "We waited so long to get off a shot in the OT because we didn't want to commit a turnover off a shot attempt due to Golden West's strong counter attack. We wanted to wait until we could get a high percentage shot and Teo delivered. We were zapped of energy by that point too."

It was the Vikings' 10th (1963, 1970, 1973, 1986, 1987, 1988, 2005, 2006, 2013, 2015) state title and second in the past two seasons. It was the third straight year in which Golden West and LBCC played in the championship match. Giorgio La Rosa, who scored two goals, was the tourney MVP and the Vikings received strong play from goalie Nick Wood with eight saves. Marton Gorbics added three goals and two assists, including the goal of the tournament when he made a nifty, no-look attempt from about 18 meters that stunned Golden West in the first quarter.

Men's Championship Final
S2 Long Beach 12, S1 Golden West 11 (OT)
Score by Quarters
Long Beach         6-1-2-2-1--12
Golden West     2-4-3-2-0--11
Scoring
LBCC: Teo Dadic 4, Marton Gorbics 3, Conor Shuey 2, Giorgio La Rosa 2,
Frankie Cervantes.
Record: 24-5
GW: Dalton Kenefick 6, Botond Kadar 2, Cieran Wolohan 2, Alessandro Valania
Record: 28-2
Goalie Saves: LBCC: Nick Wood 8; GW: Taylor Miller 2, Nicholas Dale 7.

2015 ALL-STATE WATER POLO TOURNAMENT
MVP-Giorgio La Rosa, Long Beach
Nick Wood, Long Beach
Teo Dadic, Long Beach
Dalton Kenefick, Golden West
Ciaran Wolohan, Golden West
Rey Castillo, West Valley
Andras Telegdy, Diablo Valley
Coach of the Year-David Kasa, Long Beach