Vikings sunk, 9-6, in championship

The Viking men's water polo team went one game farther than last year and was the runner-up in the state, losing 9-6 to Golden West in the championship final.

The Vikes, the So-Cal No. 2 seed, faced off against the top seed from the north, and defending state champions, West Valley, in a rematch of last season's semi-final game Friday, Nov. 18 at the Cerritos College aquatic center.

LBCC quickly found itself down 2-0, but settled down and overtook West Valley.

"We came out a little tentative, a little nervous and then we just got rid of it. Once we got that first goal, we realized we can score and started to get back on plan," LBCC coach Chris Oeding said.

They would avenge last year's defeat with an 8-7 victory that came down to the waning seconds.

With West Valley deep in the Vikings' half, sophomore Bradley Adamson tipped the ball away and was recovered by Nemanja Jokanovic, who secured the ball with seconds remaining.

West Valley longtime coach Bruce Watson took the loss well and was complimentary to the Vikings in defeat.

"Long Beach has very good coaches and they played very well. They make adjustments well and Long Beach battled and we didn't convert our 6 on 5s and that was the difference.

"We played well enough to win, but it was going to be a close game. I knew it would be. We didn't get any breaks," Watson said.

With a 9-8 overtime loss in the So-Cal championships just a week prior, revenge was certainly on the minds of LBCC.

Freshman Dan Appfel said, "I want to play against Golden West, because they beat us twice and I want revenge."

Appfel would get his wish as Golden West defeated Diablo Valley to set up an all-So-Cal final.

In the championship game, LBCC jumped out to a 2-0 lead on early goals from Tristan Winterhalter and Jokanovic.

But the Rustlers' "Team November" moniker proved to be just that. Golden West quickly battled back to tie the game and scoring would be back and forth throughout much of the first half.

It was in the third quarter when Golden West put the game away with four goals, three of them scored by Rustler attacker Kevin Oliveria.

The leading scorer for all teams was Bero Rusz of Golden West with five goals in the championship game.

Rusz said, "It was pretty much the same game for me, the first and second periods were really physical and we had to swim a lot. I think our conditioning was what won us the championship."

The fourth quarter played out much like the first two, but the lead extended by the Rustlers proved to be too much for the Vikings to recover from.

Golden West would go on to win its 22nd state title in the victory.

"Long Beach has a good program, good coach, good team. We knew we had to come ready to play. They played a great game against West Valley," Golden West coach Scott Tayor said.

"They played a great game last week and their kids played hard today. We have a mutual respect for their program and enjoy the competition." Taylor added.