LOS ANGELES — The No. 8 Long Beach State men’s water polo earned a split Saturday in the opening day of the SoCal Invitational, highlighted by a thrilling, triple-overtime victory over the No. 9 Pepperdine Waves at UCLA’s Sunset Canyon Recreation Center.
In a game that outlasted a short-circuited scoreboard, LBSU players and coaches jumped in jubilation when Barry Snyder capitalized on a 6-on-5 advantage. The sophomore snuck a shot inside the near post for the 11-10 win in sudden death overtime.
“It was a good situation for us to be in,” head coach Gavin Arroyo said of his team’s first overtime game of the season. “It was high pressure and I’m thankful for our guys to be able to give an all-team effort.”
The Beach (6-4) broke open a 4-4 tie to start the second half with successive goals by Taylor Clute, Dan Matulis and Nick Rascon.
Pepperdine (7-6) did not back down. The Waves closed out the third quarter with two goals, one of which came with just three seconds remaining in the period, to cut the lead to 7-6.
Rex Learmouth pulled Pepperdine even with his goal in the early stages of the fourth quarter. Rascon put the 49ers back on top with a power play goal with 4:31 left in regulation. LBSU was unable to hold the lead though, as the Waves tied up the score at 8 with just 1:56 left.
With one minute left in the game, the 49ers were awarded an exclusionary advantage. Hoping to seize the late opportunity, Arroyo called a timeout to set up his power play.
The 49ers were unable to get a shot away, and it was left up to the defense to extend the game into overtime. The Beach came through, not allowing a shot at its net as time expired.
Pepperdine grabbed the lead in the first overtime, but Carter Taylor evened the score at 9 when he scored with 1:39 left.
In the second overtime, it was the 49ers turn to play with the lead after Travis Cleland gave his team a 10-9 advantage. The Waves erased the deficit with a goal in the final minute of the second extra frame to send the game into a golden goal period.
On LBSU’s second possession of sudden-death overtime, the 49ers gained a 6-on-5 advantage, but the game and shot clocks blew a fuse so the game was left in the hands of manual stopwatches and verbalized time warnings.
Snyder made sure human timekeepers didn’t factor into the decision, striking on the first possession when play resumed to give The Beach the win.
“It felt great to end it,” said Snyder of his game winner. “It was back-and-forth.”
Matthew Kubeck came up big for his teammates in goal, stopping 12 of 22 shots on goal including two saves in overtime.
“Oh, God, don’t let them score,” said Kubeck of his initial thoughts in a sudden-death situation. “You hope they [the Waves] don’t ever get the ball.”
The 49ers finished the day by losing 17-5 to the undefeated No. 1 USC Trojans.
Robert Poynton played the first half against the Trojans (13-0), making three saves. Poynton was spelled by Felipe Tejero in the second half.
Rascon scored in the fourth quarter to extend his scoring streak to 10 games.
The 49ers will take on the No. 4 Stanford Cardinal tomorrow for the right to play in the fifth-place game. Game time is set for 8 a.m. at the Spieker Aquatics Center at UCLA.
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