49ers Open MPSF Play At UC Irvine
Beach To Host U.S. National Team On Wednesday
October 14, 2003 The Record: The Long Beach State men's water polo team will open its Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) schedule this Sunday when they play at UC Irvine. The 49ers, 10-7 overall, won three of four games this past weekend. Wednesday, The Beach will play an exhibition game as they take on the U.S. National Team at 4 pm at the Campus Pool. UC Irvine heads into the week at 8-9 overall and 0-0 in the MPSF.
The Coach: Rick Azevedo is 68-58 (.540) in his fifth year as the head coach at Long Beach State. Azevedo was a busy man this summer as one of the assistant coach's for the U.S. Men's National Team. He traveled with the team to eight different countries over a span of 63 days. The trip culminated with a gold medal at the Pan American Games in the Dominican Republic.
Last Week's Roundup: The 49ers went 3-1 last week, falling at UC San Diego 8-2 on Friday and then rebounding for wins over St. Francis (NY) (10-5), Cal Baptist (16-4) and UC Santa Cruz (14-4). David Del Grande had seven goals in the four games to lead the offensive attack, while Brad Scoles had six and Erik Geoffroy, Nathan Allard and Reid Tomassi all added five.
UC San Diego: The 49er offense never got on track as the Tritons won easily 8-2. UCSD jumped out to a 3-0 first quarter lead and never looked back. John Filipponi and Allard scored goals for The Beach.
St. Francis: Del Grande scored a career-high five goals to lead the 49ers to the 10-5 win. Geoffroy and Scoles added two goals each. Thomas Onyshko was solid in goal, recording 10 saves.
Cal Baptist: 11 different 49ers scored, led by Tomassi's three goals, in the 16-4 rout. LBSU led 6-1 after one quarter and 9-2 at the half. At one point the 49ers scored 10 consecutive goals.
UC Santa Cruz: Leading 6-3 at the half, the 49ers put the game away with six third quarter goals. Tomassi, Scoles and Blake Bartak each scored two goals for the victorious 49ers. Michail Konstas earned his first start in goal and recorded seven goalie saves.
Schedule Changes: There are a couple of changes to the original 49er schedule. On October 15 the 49ers will host the U.S. National Team in an exhibition game at 4 pm at the Campus Pool. The November 1 game vs. USC will be at USC at 1:30 pm, not at the Campus Pool. The 49ers will also host Pepperdine on November 22 at 12 pm at the Campus Pool.
This Year Vs. UC Irvine: The 49ers and Anteaters had a great match the first time they met this season, an 8-7 49er triumph at the SoCal Tournament, which was held on the UCI campus. The game was decided in sudden-victory overtime when freshman Reid Tomassi scored on a power-play goal 2:25 into sudden victory. Erik Geoffroy had four goals for the 49ers while Tomassi found the back of the net three times. Phil Garcia and Rick Merlo both scored three goals for the Anteaters. The second meeting came on Oct. 5 in the 7th Place game at the NorCal Tournament. UCI came away with an 11-8 victory as Garcia tallied three goals for the Anteaters. With the score tied 4-4 at the half, UCI out-scored the 49ers 4-2 in the third quarter and never relinquished its lead. UC Irvine leads the all-time series between the two schools by a 58-19-1 count. Last year the Anteaters beat the Beach twice, winning 10-5 at Los Al Naval Base in an MPSF game and 10-9 early in the season at UCI.
Del Grande Puts Up Numbers: Senior David Del Grande (Novato) has been playing excellent water polo all season for the 49ers, but the last two weekends he has really stepped up his scoring output. In the four games this last weekend he tallied seven goals, including a career-high five in the 10-5 win over St. Francis (NY). At the NorCal Tournament the previous weekend, Del Grande scored eight goals in the four games. With 21 goals on the season, 15 of those have come in his last eight games. His 21 goals is tied for second on the team this year.
Geoffroy Leads In Scoring: Junior Erik Geoffroy (Rossmoor/Los Alamitos HS) continues to lead the 49ers in scoring this season as he has racked up 43 goals in the 17 games thus far. Geoffroy has scored in 16 of the 17 games this season, including tallying two or more goals in 15 of the 17 contests. Last season Geoffroy scored 69 goals, the fifth-best single season total in 49er history.
Freshman Tomassi Continues To Impress: True freshman Reid Tomassi (Winter Park, FL) has started in all 17 games this season and is tied for second on the team with 21 goals. Tomassi scored five goals this weekend, three at Cal Baptist and two vs. UC Santa Cruz. He has scored in 10 of the 17 games, with eight multiple-goal games. His three tallies vs. Cal Baptist ties his career-high which he set twice earlier this season against Johns Hopkins and UC Irvine.
Scoles Climbs Up Chart: Sophomore Brad Scoles (Ashland, OR) scored six goals in the four games this past weekend, giving him 18 on the year, fifth-best on the squad. Last year Scoles scored eight goals as a true freshman. Scoles has scored two goals six times this year, including the last three games in a row (St. Francis, Cal Baptist, UC Santa Cruz).
First Goals: This past weekend there were three 49ers who scored their first collegiate goals. Redshirt freshman Jason Cloud (Huntington Beach) scored one goal against Cal Baptist and UC Santa Cruz, as did fellow redshirt freshman Jay Gerardi (Long Beach/Wilson HS. Sophomore Pat Ecker (Palos Verdes) picked up his first goal as a 49er in the win at Cal Baptist. So far in 2003, 16 different players have scored goals for the 49ers.
Career Scoring Chart: Junior Erik Geoffroy checks in with 115 career goals, placing him 13th on the 49er career chart. Senior Nathan Allard has also eclipsed the 100-goal mark and is 15th all-time with 107 goals.
Scoring Pace Improves: The 49ers are averaging 9.82 goals per game through their first 17 games, having hit double digits in goals ten times. The 49ers had a season-high 16 goals this past weekend when they won at Cal Baptist, 16-4. Last season the 49ers averaged 8.58 goals per game and hit double digits in scoring 10 times.
| CAREER GOALS SCORED | | 1. 231, Kyle Kopp | | 2. 205, Mike Burke | | 3. 174, Jeff Colyer | | 4. 165, Chris Segesman | | 5. 162, Grant Jeffries | | 6. 160, Bob Dolan | | 7. 154, Kim Parsons | | 8. 142, Scott Weir | | 9. 128, Chi Kredell | | 10. 123, Aaron Holloway | | 11. 122, Darin Blizzard | | 12. 117, Phil Castillo | | 13. 115, Erik Geoffroy | | 14. 114, Robert Williams | | 15. 107, Nathan Allard | | 16. 105, Jon Peterson | | 17. 104, Jim Birdsell | | 18. 96, Doug Kimball | | 19. 84, Bob Ratkovic | | 20. 82, Doug Bolicek | | 20. 82, Dana Twohig |
2003 SCHEDULE & RESULTS
10-7 Overall / 0-0 MPSF
September
6 !Iona W, 8-5
6 !St. Francis (NY) W, 10-8
6 !Navy L, 10-12
7 !Queens College W, 10-6
7 !Johns Hopkins W, 15-5
20 @UC Irvine W, 8-7 (SV/OT)
20 @USC L, 7-9
21 @UCLA W, 9-5
21 @UC San Diego L, 10-11
October
4 #Navy W, 11-7
4 #Pepperdine L, 9-11
5 #UCLA L, 10-11 (OT)
5 #UC Irvine L, 8-11
10 at UC San Diego L, 2-8
11 vs. St. Francis (at CBU) W, 10-5
11 at Cal Baptist W, 16-4
12 UC Santa Cruz W, 14-4
15 U.S. National Team 4 pm (Exh)
19 *at UC Irvine 12 pm
24 at UC Davis 4 pm
25 *at Pacific 12 pm
26 *at California 12 pm
November
1 *at USC 1:30 pm
2 *UCSB 12 pm
2 Occidental 3 pm
8 *at Pepperdine 12 pm
9 *UCLA 12 pm
16 *Stanford 12 pm
22 Pepperdine 12 pm
28 $MPSF Tournament
29 $MPSF Tournament
30 $MPSF Tournament
* MPSF Match
! 2003 Navy Open (Annapolis, MD)
@ SoCal Tournament (At UCI)
# NorCal Tournament (At Stanford)
$ MPSF Tournament (At Pepperdine) .
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