Long Beach Coasts To 2nd Straight SCC Men's Water Polo Championship

Long Beach City College collected its 24th championship and second straight in winning the South Coast Conference Championship Tournament, defeating Mt. San Antonio, 21-5, in the title game on Saturday at Cerritos College. 

The Vikings completed a perfect 7-0 run in SCC matches this season (won the SCC dual season title at 5-0) after routing El Camino, 22-7, on Thursday in the tourney's opening round.

Against Mt. SAC, Federico Gulisano, from Italy, racked up seven goals and four assists while Balazs Hajdu, from Hungary, added six goals. Long Beach opened up a 12-0 lead before the Mounties finally got on the board with one of a team-leading three goals scored by Jacob Carlson with one second left before halftime.

Long Beach (22-6 overall) is an automatic qualifier for the Southern California Regionals. Mt. SAC finishes at 15-11 and 5-3 in SCC games. Gulisano Ivan Cubelic, from Croatia, 

Carlson (three assists), Trevor Davis (four assists) and Nicolas Flores each scored four goals in the Mounties' 18-16 win over Cerritos in the semifinals.

Mt. SAC's Jacob Carlson

Third Place Final: Cerritos 16, El Camino 6
Chrisitian Acosta scored six goals, Isaiah Wright notched two goals and six assists, and Max Lucero tallied a hat trick as the Falcons (21-12, 5-2 in SCC play) settled for third place in conference. 18-16, in the semifinals on Thursday. El Camino (9-20, 3-5) got two goals and two assists each from Cooper Josic and Zane Johnson.

Christian Acosta for Cerritos

Fifth Place Final: Chaffey 17, Rio Hondo 12
Parker Black powered in six goals and Vincent Garibay netted five as the Panthers (8-21, 2-5) grabbed fifth place in the SCC. Rio Hondo had a tough season, winning just once in 30 games (0-7 in conference). Arik Aguirre was leading the SCC in goals with 99 and scored five for RHC in a 22-6 loss to Mt. SAC in round 1.

Release by Robert Lewis, SCC SID