Huntington Beach, Calif. - Golden West Men's Water Polo finished their weekend tournament 3-1, after a heartbreaking loss to Long Beach City College.
Sixteen of the top water polo teams in the state traveled to Huntington Beach to compete in the Golden West Tournament. This mid-season tournament provides a telling glimpse of who will be facing off for So Cal and State Championships.
The Rustlers' first win of the weekend was a 20-5 victory over San Diego Mesa. Paco Gonzalez tallied three goals for the Rustlers, and drew two exclusions as the Rustlers would cruise to an easy victory. Golden West never lost the lead, and with Hayden Paul in the cage, Golden West held Mesa scoreless in the 4th quarter.
Next, Cuesta College did their best to match up against the Rustler powerhouse team, but finished in a painful 12-3 defeat. Cuesta was held scoreless in the second half as the Rustlers went on a 7-0 run against the Cougars. Sophomores Robert Schatz and Laszlo Nagy led Golden West with 3 goals each.
Saturday morning brought the top 8 teams of the tournament to the Golden West pool and it was Diablo Valley College's turn to see if they could stop the Rustlers. The two teams knotted the score 3 times before Golden West started to slowly pull away with the lead. In the final minutes of the game, DVC tied the score 8-8, but it was Aaron Polk's solo goal of the game that gave Golden West the win. Sophomore Sean Grab finished the game with 3 goals and 2 drawn ejections as the Rustlers defeated the Vikings 9-8, setting Golden West to face off with Long Beach City College for the championships.
The final game of proved to be a physical test until the very end for the top teams. With a combined 20 ejections and yellow cards for each team, the 11-10 victory for LBCC was hard fought. Sean Grab, Aaron Polk, and Ari Marks each once chipped in two goals while Derek Iglesias, Robert Schatz and Laszlo Nagy added 1 goal apiece. Golden West maintained a slight lead over their rivals, but by the 3rd quarter, Golden West could not recover. Polk put Golden West within one of Long Beach, but there was not enough time on the clock to take the win.
Next, the Rustlers return to conference play as they host Riverside on Wed. Oct. 30th at 4:00pm.
