'Old
timers' notch win in exhibition game, 10-8
By
Daniel Frias
On-line
Forty-Niner
When
alumni go back to school it is usually to
give support to their alma mater and not
give the current students a beating.
Long
Beach State received the latter on Sunday
afternoon as former LBSU water polo players
got together at the Campus pool to play
against the 49ers men's water polo team.
The
game pitted former LBSU water polo players
including recent players Aaron Holloway,
who played for the 49ers last season and
veterans such as Doug Kimball, an ex-Olympian
who played in the early '80s against the
current team.
Despite
some gray hairs and middle-aged bellies
the alumni showed that age and experience
can beat youth and vigor as they defeated
the 49ers 10-8 in the school's first alumni
game in more than seven years.
"We
might be out of shape," head coach Rick
Azevedo said. "But we have Olympians on
our team. We have a lot of savvy."
Coach
Azevedo played on the alumni squad along
with Kimball, who represented the United
States at the 1988 and 1992 Olympics and
was coming off his second alumni game in
as many days.
"It
was fun," Kimball said. "They're all in
shape and we're not. I just played in my
high school alumni game yesterday and we
won that game."
Recent
CSULB graduate Aaron Holloway echoed those
sentiments.
"It
was too much fun," Holloway said about the
game. "Seeing some of the older guys. Some
of the legends like Kimball and playing
with the old people and younger guys."
The
alumni got on the board first when they
scored a goal just two minutes into the
contest. The 49ers evened the score
when senior David Del Grande put the ball
in the cage with 1:38 remaining in the first
quarter.
The
veterans scored first again in the second
quarter on a tip from a lob pass, but the
49ers came right back with a goal of its
own to tie the score at 2-2. The alumni
team added one more goal to the score before
The Beach answered with two goals to take
a 4-3 lead heading into halftime.
"It
was a great game," assistant coach Michael
Ashe said. "Anytime you can get guys like
this together, all that history, all these
Olympians, it's phenomenal."
The
second half of the game saw more offense
by both teams, with 11 goals; seven for
the alumni and four for The Beach.
The
Beach scored first in the third period and
extended their lead 5-3. The alumni
kept their poise and scored two consecutive
goals to tie the marker at five. 49ers senior
Ken Turner got inside the goal area and
put the ball past the opposing goalie with
23 seconds left in the third period to give
his team a 6-5 edge over the opponent.
In
the final period the alumni scored four
unanswered goals to give them a comfortable
9-6 lead.
Assistant
coach Ashe put his starters back in to try
to even the game but it did not work. The
49ers were only able to score two more goals
as the alumni team put the game away with
the final goal with just under two minutes
to play to give the old guys a 10-8 victory
over the young 49ers.
"I'm
pleased that everyone got a chance to play,"
Ashe said. "But by the same token, we weren't
out there to give the game away."
"It
was great. It was a lot of fun," said 49ers
senior Nathan Allen, who scored two goals
in his first alumni game. "They're not in
shape, but they still know how to play the
game. They had Olympians out there. It was
a tough game."
The
alumni game was not about "winning or losing,"
said coach Azevedo whose idea it was to
put this game together. "It's about playing.
It's about a festival."
|
