By Troy Lippman
No. 10 Long Beach State’s men’s water polo team defeated Westcliff 20-9, Biola 18-8 and Brown 26-6 on Sept. 14 at the Ken Lindgren Aquatics Center.
After Saturday’s performance, The Beach improved their record to 5-1 and continued their impressive start to the 2024 season.
LBSU started strong in the first game of the day by leading 9-4 at the half.
Sophomore attacker Caleb Francisco opened the scoring with the game’s first goal and continued to impress as he finished with five goals on nine attempts.
Long Beach State men’s water polo hosted Westcliff, Biola and No. 18 Brown at the Ken Lindgren Aquatics Center on Sept. 14. Redshirt freshman Nicolas Fuchs scored four goals and assisted three across Saturday’s three games. Photo Credit: Devin Malast
“I feel like today was pretty good. We have a huge game tomorrow, so we were just letting the starters take a break. The next guy’s job was to show what they got and go get the job done,” Francisco said.
Westcliff’s graduate attacker Manuel Augusto’s back-to-back goals put the Warriors up 3-2 at the end of the first quarter.
The tide turned in the second quarter as The Beach led 9-4 going into the break and never looked back.
Junior utility player Jackson Bryson used his defensive skills as LBSU won three games on Sept. 14. The Beach hosted Westcliff, Biola and #18 Brown at Ken Lindgren Aquatics Center leaving with a season record of 5-1. Photo Credit: Devin Malast
With a comfortable lead, the wealth was shared among goal scorers as nine LBSU players etched their names in the box score with five goals coming from Francisco.
“We’re still early in the season trying different things, different people, trying to get a gauge of what we’re doing the rest of today with Brown, and tomorrow with Stanford,” LBSU head coach Gavin Arroyo said.
The matchup against Biola saw a similar outcome as The Beach came out on top 18-8, but had a better start as they grabbed an early 5-3 lead after the first quarter.
In a contest that looked fairly one-sided from the start, senior goalie Liam Ward stole the show with eight saves in three periods, including two penalty saves.
“Hard work during the preseason and good communication are important; playing good defense leads to no goals,” Ward said.
The Beach moved into halftime leading by a score of 10-5 and did not look back as they went on a 7-0 run in the third quarter, extending the score to 17-5.
Long Beach State men’s water polo team defeated Westcliff 20-9, Biola 18-8 and No. 18 Brown 26-6. Senior utility player Bruno Chiappini scored two goals and had two assists against Biola. Photo Credit: Devin Malast
The Eagles won the fourth quarter 3-1, but did not do nearly enough to climb out of their massive 12-goal deficit as the game finished in an 18-8 LBSU victory.
The last game of the day saw The Beach continue their dominance in a 26-6 win over Brown.
The impressive offensive performance was only the fifth time in LBSU men’s water polo history that they scored 26 goals.
The goalie position shined again, but this time it was senior Aaron Wilson. He finished with 11 saves behind the outstanding LBSU defense that held the No. 18 team in the country to six goals.
10 LBSU players got the scoresheet, with sophomore attacker Marc Frigola and freshman attacker Kostantinos Kapragkos both notching hat tricks.
