
49ers Roll Past UC Irvine
2/28/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Water Polo
Oct. 14, 2007
IRVINE, Calif. - Travis Buchanan, Jake Kinne and Justin Koeppen all scored two goals to lift Long Beach State to an 8-5 win over UC Irvine on Sunday morning at the SoCal Tournament. The sixth-ranked 49ers then fell in the fifth place game, falling 8-7 to No. 5 Pepperdine. The 49ers are now 13-6 on the season.
The 49ers led 4-0 mid-way through the second quarter before two UCI (7-6) tallies cut the deficit to 4-2 at the half. The Anteaters rallied in the third quarter, out-scoring the 49ers 3-to-2 to pull to within 6-5. In the fourth quarter the 49ers put up two goals while the Beach defense shutout UCI. Long Beach took a 7-5 lead after Kinne's second goal of the day, an extra man tally at 7:35. Koeppen salted the victory away by scoring on a penalty shot at 3:28, giving the 49ers a commanding 8-5 lead. 49er goalie Steve MacKenzie had 12 goalie saves in the game. Cole Bitter led UCI with two goals.
In the fifth place game, the 49ers rallied from a big deficit to take a fourth quarter lead, only to see the Waves (20-4) rally for the late win. Pepperdine led 4-1 after one quarter and 6-2 at the half. Long Beach cut the deficit to 6-4 with two third quarter goals, and then capped a 5-0 run and took a 7-6 lead on Nick Korsgaden's second goal of the day with 2:47 left. The Waves countered with an extra-man goal at 2:14 by Adam Hewko to tie the contest and then scored the game-winner with 51 seconds left on a penalty shot by Caleb Hamilton.
Ash Blythen and Korsgaden each scored two goals for Long Beach, while Kinne, Pavle Filipovic and Reid Tomassi each scored once. In goal, MacKenzie recorded 13 saves for the 49ers. Hamilton led the Waves with three goals and Hewko added two.
Long Beach will next be in action on Friday, October 19 when they play a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) contest at UC Irvine at 7 pm. The 49ers will be home on Sunday, October 21 at the Campus Pool taking on Stanford (12 pm) and UC Davis (4 pm).