Long Beach State University
St. Francis College Brooklyn
Koeppen's Goal Lifts 49ers Past St. Francis
2/28/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Water Polo
Oct. 13, 2008
IRVINE, Calif. - Sophomore Justin Koeppen scored the game-winner with 2:01 left in the contest to lift No. 6-ranked Long Beach State to an 8-7 win over No. 12 St. Francis (NY) College on Saturday morning at the SoCal Tournament at Anteater Pool. In its afternoon contest the 49ers saw their five-game win streak snapped with an 11-7 loss to No. 2 Cal. The 49ers are 12-5 on the season and will play on Sunday at 9:20 am at the Anteater Pool against either UC Irvine or Stanford. Cal improved to 15-1 with the victory and St. Francis fell to 11-4.
Against the Terriers in the morning contest, senior Reid Tomassi led the 49er offensive attack with three goals and Jake Kinne added two. Nick Korsgaden and Jeff Greenwood also tallied 49er goals. Goalie Steve MacKenzie recorded 14 goalie saves. The first half was a defensive struggle as the teams played to a 2-2 tie at the half. In the third quarter the 49ers took a 5-4 lead, only to see the Terriers fight back in the fourth quarter to battle back and tie the game at 7-7 with just under three minutes remaining. The 49ers took the lead for good on Koeppen's extra man goal at 2:01, the final goal of the game. Botond Szalma led St. Francis with three goals.
Long Beach jumped to a quick 2-0 lead against the Golden Bears as Kevin Mundia and Tomassi scored extra-man goals in the first two and a half minutes of the first quarter. Cal countered with four consecutive goals to take a 4-2 lead and never looked back. The Golden Bears scored five second quarter goals to stake themselves to an 8-4 halftime lead.
Mundia and Ash Blythen both tallied two goals for the 49ers, while Spencer Warden scored three goals for Cal. The Golden Bears had nine different players tally goals. Long Beach State goalie Steve MacKenzie had 12 goalie saves, giving him double-digits in saves in six of his last seven outings.
