The
Beach wins three of four in busy weekend
Matt
Brown/ Sports Information
By
Michael Bower
On-line Forty-Niner
The
Long Beach State men's water polo team has
been playing some stiff competition lately,
and after losing their fourth-straight game
on Friday they took out their aggression
on three unranked teams.
The
49ers(10-7) traveled to sixth ranked UC
San Diego on Friday night only to be trounced
8-2 by the Tritons, who raced out to a 3-1
lead in the first quarter and just kept
pouring it on The Beach until the game ended.
The
seventh ranked Beach welcomed the change
of pace with three solid victories over
Saturday and Sunday.
The
Beach snapped the four-game losing streak
on Saturday with a 10-5 victory over St.
Francis, and then a 16-4 laugher over host
Cal Baptist.
The
Beach then kept the winning-streak alive
coasting to a 14-4 win over UC Santa Cruz
at the Campus Pool Sunday.
Senior
David Del Grande scored three of his career-high
five goals to give The Beach a 5-2 halftime
lead over St. Francis. Erik Geoffroy and
sophomore Brad Scoles added two goals apiece
while goalie Thomas Onyshko recorded 10
saves in the victory.
The
afternoon game Saturday featured 11 different
scorers for the 49ers as the team scored
a season-high 16 goals.
The
Beach jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead in
the first quarter before Cal Baptist cut
the lead to 6-2 midway through the second
quarter. That would be all Cal Baptist would
get until the fourth quarter as the 49ers
scored 10 consecutive goals in the rout.
Reid
Tomassi led the way scoring three goals,
while Nathan Allard, Geoffroy and Scoles
had two goals apiece. Junior Michail Konstas,
who took over at goalie for Onyshko in the
second half, finished with five saves for
The Beach.
UC
Santa Cruz(13-13) played with The Beach
for the first half before being blown away
by the offense of the 49ers.
UCSC
found the back of the net 1:11 into the
game, but the 49ers controlled the rest
of the match. Del Grande and Scoles scored
back-to-back goals in the first quarter
to lift The Beach to a 2-1 lead.
The
49ers increased that lead to 6-2 at the
half before scoring six goals in the third
quarter to jump out to a 12-3 lead. For
the second time over the weekend The Beach
had 11 different scorers in the game.
Tomassi,
Scoles and Blake Bartak all scored two goals
for The Beach. Konstas recorded seven more
saves in his first start of the season.
Team
officials were not available for comment
at press time.
The
49ers will host the U.S. National Team in
an exhibition game on Wednesday at 4 p.m.
at the Campus Pool.
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