49ers Finish 8th At SoCal Tournament September 21, 2002 LONG BEACH, CA-- Stephen Lipinski (Palo Alto) scored three goals to lead USC to a 9-5 win over Long Beach State on Saturday afternoon in men’s water polo action at the 49er Campus Pool. It was the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) opener for both teams. USC, ranked #6 nationally, improved to 7-2 and 1-0 in the MPSF, while the 49ers, ranked #8, fell to 4-6 overall and 0-1.
Gadi Hadar got USC off to a strong start as he scored both of his goals in the first quarter (5:19, 4:17), giving USC a 2-0 lead. That lead was pushed to 5-0 after Erik Healy’s (Manhattan Beach) goal at the 1:10 mark in the second quarter. Long Beach got on the board at the 0:44 mark just before the half when junior Nathan Allard (La Habra) found the back of the net for the first of his two goals.
The 49ers mounted a strong comeback in the third quarter, pulling to within 5-4 after Kellyn Carlson’s (Tacoma, WA) goal at 1:46. Erik Geoffroy (Los Alamitos) scored to begin the third quarter for the 49ers, and then Allard scored his second goal at the 2:38 mark. USC finished the quarter with a goal at 1:11 as Brett Reynolds (Santa Ana) gave USC a 6-4 lead after three. The Trojans then put the game away with two goals early in the fourth quarter. Lipinski scored his second goal at the 6:12 mark and Cameron Kaiser (Novato) scored at 4:11 to give USC a commanding 8-4 lead. Lipinski’s final goal came at the 1:26 mark of the contest.
“We played with a lot of enthusiasm at the start,” said 49er head coach Rick Azevedo. “We weren’t playing badly today, we just didn’t execute as well as we should have. I was proud of the way we fought back after being down 5-0. That showed a lot of courage. But, we didn’t execute as well as we should have in the second half.”
The 49ers will next be in action on Thursday, September 26 when they host Loyola Marymount at 4:00 pm at the 49er Campus Pool.
| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | | USC | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 9 | | LBSU | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
Scoring:
USC: Stephen Lipinski 3, Gadi hadar 2, Brett Reynolds 1, Jaraj Hatovic 1, Erik Healy 1, Cameron Kaiser 1
LBSU: Erik Geoffroy 2, Nathan Allard 2, Kellyn Carlson 1
Goalie Saves: Michael Konstas (LBSU) 7, Bozidor Damjanovic (USC) 6
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