Long Beach Back In The Saddle As SCC Men's Water Polo Champions

Release by Robert Lewis, SCC SID
See the original release here. 

A school that had been synonymous with success in the sport, Long Beach City College was disappointed that it didn't advance to last year's championship game of the South Coast Conference Men's Water Polo Championships. 

The Vikings used that motivation this year and returned to the winner's circle on Saturday with an 11-9 win over Cerritos to capture the 2024 SCC championship, LBCC's 23rd in conference history. The tourney was played Nov. 8-9 at Mt. San Antonio College. 

In the finals, state #6-ranked Long Beach broke an 8-8 tie in the fourth quarter on a goal by Thomaz Figueiredo with 4:29 left, then added two more insurance goals, including the fourth of the match by Andrija Stankovic on the power play to clinch the crown.

Long Beach, 20-7 overall, went a perfect 7-0 in SCC play, including a 5-0 record to win the dual regular season title. However, the Vikings had lost to Cerritos, 8-6, at the Golden West Tournament on Oct. 26.

In the title game, state #9-rated Cerritos (16-12, 5-2) rallied from down 8-5 on three straight goals by Tim Robles before LBCC pulled away with its fourth-quarter spurt. Robles finished with six goals and the SCC steals leader made four takeaways. Goalie Diego Campos made an impressive 16 saves in the defeat.

Long Beach defeated last year's champ Mt. San Antonio, 19-10, in the semifinals while Cerritos won the other semi over El Camino, 15-10.

THIRD PLACE FINAL: El Camino 18, Mt. San Antonio 17 (OT)--The Warriors (23-12, 5-3) grabbed third place with a thrilling overtime victory. Hector Trefilio sent the game to the two extra periods at 15-15 on a goal with 2:14 left in the fourth quarter. Nico Lara gave the Mounties a 17-16 lead with 1:47 left in the second OT period, but El Camino battled back with SCC scoring leader Max Hale's goal 26 seconds later, then Trefilio netting the game-winner with just seven seconds to go. Scott Fujiwara led ECC with six goals and five assists while Trevor Davis notched six goals for Mt. SAC (17-15, 3-5).

FIFTH PLACE FINAL: Chaffey 9, Rio Hondo 8--The Panthers trailed 8-5 but Vincent Garibay scored a natural hat trick, tallying the game-winner with 1:17 remaining. Matthew Escobar made eight saves for Rio Hondo.

The SCC teams await the SoCal Regional Playoff seedings to be announced at a later date.