Long Beach State University
Whittier
Long Beach State water polo routs Whittier in season opener
9/4/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Water Polo
Sept. 4, 2010
Irvine, Calif. - Long Beach State men's water polo looked sharp in its 22-8 season opening rout of Whittier College on Saturday at the UC Irvine Invitational.
The Beach's Barry Snyder led all scorers with a game-high five goals. Taylor Clute finished with four, followed by Matt Farrington and freshman Nick Rascon playing in college game. In all, a total of 10 Long Beach State players put the ball in the net.
Clute got the 49ers on the board first with a goal at the 6:02 mark of the first period. After a Whittier goal tied the game at 1-1, Clute put the 49ers back on top for good. With 3:30 left to play in the first period, Rascon recorded his first career goal. When his first penalty shot attempt was blocked, Rascon retrieved his own rebound and pounded it in the left corner to put The Beach up 3-1.
After Matt Farrington's breakaway goal put the 49ers up by three, Whittier cut the lead to 4-2 on a goal by Brandon Babot. Less than 30 seconds later, The Beach struck again on a shot by last year's leading scorer Alexsandr Petrovic. With 15 seconds left in the first half Carter Taylor skipped one in to give Long Beach State a 6-2 lead after one period.
Senior attacker Patrick van der Linde got the scoring started for the 49ers in the second period with a goal at the 6:28 mark. Jordan Koeppen, Rascon (two in second period), Snyder (two in second period), Will Mathison and Farrington, accounted for the rest of the goals in the second period to stretch the Long Beach State lead to 11 goals at 14-3. Also in the second period, 49ers goalkeeper Matt Kubeck made a great one handed save against Whittier's Babot on a penalty shot from point blank range.
In the third period, Clute picked up his third and fourth goals, Snyder cashed in two more, Koeppen got his second goal and Farrington finished off his hat trick, while Brian Schiefer scored his first of the game, and fourth of his career. Freshman Rob Robinson scored his first as a 49er. With a 7-3 goal edge in the third period, the 49ers cruised into the fourth period with a comfortable 21-6 lead.
The last eight minutes were relatively quiet with the game already in hand for Long Beach State. With 2:15 remaining, Barry Snyder picked up his game-high fifth goal to close out the scoring, and give the 49ers an impressive season opening 22-8 win.
"The intensity was there and we were all pretty excited to get to compete," Long Beach State head water polo coach Gavin Arroyo said. "We had a couple of things we did good, and others we struggled with."
The 49ers will take on Stanford in a scrimmage at 3:10 p.m. today, and face Fresno Pacific at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday at the UC Irvine Invitational in Irvine, Calif.
