By Blare Parke
No.11 Long Beach State men’s water polo defeated No. 14 UC San Diego in sudden death overtime on Friday night at the Ken Lindgren Aquatics Center, earning its first Big West conference win of the year.
“Everyone in our conference is very strong this year and I think it’s any given day for everybody,” head coach Gavin Arroyo said. “With the emotional swings back and forth of this game, we needed a win at home. That’s just the bottom line.”
The Beach started the scoring off in the first quarter with a goal by senior attacker Evan Cain on a power play after a Tritons exclusion.
UCSD responded, scoring with less than a minute left on a power play of their own. The Tritons added two more goals to start the second quarter and go up 3-1.
Freshman standout center Gabi Acosta scored his first goal of the night on freshman attacker Harper Stewart’s assist to go up 3-2. UCSD added another goal to go up 4-2 before LBSU’s sophomore attacker Marc Frigola scored on a power play with 0:36 seconds left.
The third quarter started at 4-4 and both teams traded goals in the period making it 6-5 with the clock winding down towards the fourth quarter.
After a Triton turnover on a nicely anticipated ball by The Beach’s defense, Stewart tied the match 6-6. Redshirt sophomore attacker Caleb Francisco scored on a power play with 0:39 left in the third to give The Beach a 7-6 lead.
LBSU senior utility player Bruno Chiappini celebrated with his team after scoring in overtime. The Beach defeated the Tritons 13-12 at Ken Lindgren Aquatics Center on Oct. 25. Photo Credit: Devin Malast
UCSD climbed back to tie it up at 9-9 until Cain scored his third goal of the night to take a late lead.
Like the rest of the leads, it didn’t last long.
The Tritons scored with 1:42 left in the fourth to tie the game and send it to overtime.
Overtime started with The Beach taking a 12-10 lead on goals from Stewart and senior utility player Bruno Chiappini on a powerplay.
The Tritons added two goals of their own, the last with only 0:32 left on the clock to send the match to a final sudden-death overtime, a fitting finish for a closely contested game.
Redshirt sophomore attacker Caleb Francisco scored the winning goal for LBSU in the home game against UCSD on Oct. 25. The Beach won in sudden death overtime 13-12 after a hard-fought game at Ken Lindgren Aquatics Center. Photo Credit: Devin Malast
After an exclusion on UCSD, Francisco scored a power-play goal to seal his hat-trick, winning the match and giving LBSU its first Big West win.
“We trusted each other and wanted to keep doing the things we wanted to do at the beginning of the game and continue doing them in the fourth quarter,” Wilson said.
The Beach will host Cal State Fullerton on senior night on Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. at the Ken Lindgren Aquatics Center.
