By snoadmin
Capping off a four-game weekend at the Commerce Aquatics Complex hosted by USC, the No. 14 Long Beach State men’s water polo team split Sunday, losing to Loyola Marymount and beating Air Force.
With two goals each by Kevin Bradley and Nick Kosgaden, The Beach (5-9) was able to muster up its only win of the Southern California Tournament, flying past Air Force 8-7.
Not much scoring was done in the first half. Both teams scored two goals in the first quarter, but The Beach fell behind 4-3 at halftime.
The Beach rallied with a strong third quarter, outscoring Air Force by three goals and taking a 7-5 lead.
After taking the lead in the third, The Beach opened up the fourth quarter with a 7-5 lead and never looked back. The Beach played another strong quarter to finish the game, yielding only two goals to Air Force in the final frame while managing to keep its one-goal advantage.
In goal, Steven McKenzie kept the game close by recording eight saves for The Beach. Jay Gerardi, this year’s leading scorer for LBSU, was shut down. He only had one goal, which matched his total for the day.
Air Force was led by Danny Kimmich’s three goals and Joey Brewers two goals.
The Beach managed to squeak by Air Force with a one-goal advantage, but the same couldn’t be said in the match against No. 6 LMU, the first of Sunday’s doubleheader.
Against LMU, The Beach fell behind early, allowing four goals in the second quarter and setting the tone for the match. Despite a manageable 6-4 deficit at halftime, The Beach was not able to overcome LMU’s offensive firepower.
In the third quarter, both teams scored three goals, and even though The Beach won the fourth quarter 3-2, LMU still came out on top 11-10 to take the match.
In a losing effort, McKenzie had six saves and Jeff Greenwood had four goals for The Beach. Clint Wilson and Travis Buchanan chipped in with two goals each. Justin Koeppen and Korsgaden had one goal each.
For LMU, Cutberto Hernandez had three goals and Mark Milovich and Matt Reynolds had two goals each.
Overall The Beach finished the weekend winning one of its four matches.
“I’m proud we are competing against the top teams and not rolling over,” LBSU head coach Gavin Arroyo said. “But we have to learn how to beat teams and to blow out teams that we are much better than. We should have beat Air Force by five goals.”
A constant theme this season has been the lack of defense by LBSU. The Beach is averaging 10.6 goals against per game so far this year.
“We have to keep teams in single digits, and if we do that we will start winning these games,” Arroyo said.
He does see an upside for his team as the season goes on.
“There is still a tremendous amount of potential on this team. There is no limit to how good we can be,” Arroyo said.
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