No. 6 Men’s Water Polo Unbeaten At Harvard Tournament

Sunday, October 16

Providence, R.I.

6 a.m. PT

Long Beach State University

14-6

Salem

9-9

Salem University

Long Beach State

Photo by: Diego Devia @Devia.Img

10/16/2022 10:48:00 AM | Men's Water Polo

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Long Beach State wins against Salem, at Brown to go 4-0 in New England.

By: Roger Kirk, Associate Athletics Director, Communications & Broadcast

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Long Beach State dominated with two more wins during their trip to New England for the Harvard Tournament, defeating Salem 24-5 before closing out their trip with an 11-9 win on the road at Brown.

                No. 6 Long Beach State (16-6) had the defense lead the way on the day, particularly as the offense took a minute to get humming against Salem (9-10). JJ Loubriel opened the scoring, but Salem evented the score with the Beach with just under three minutes remaining in the first quarter.

Long Beach State fed Evan Cain for a pair of goals to open up a lead in the first quarter, but through the first half the Tigers remained in striking distance of the Beach at 7-4.

The Beach showed their class in a dominant second half. Aleksandar Timotijevic scored the first of his five second-half goals to get the Beach rolling in the third quarter in the first possession. The shape of the game changed from there, as Long Beach State outscored Salem 7-1 in the third quarter and then 10-0 in the fourth on the way to a 24-5 victory.

Facing the other Ivy League co-hosts in the second game, Long Beach State got a lift from an offensive show from Rafael Real Vergara and a stonewall effort from Andrej Bosanac in goal against Brown (11-8).

Vergara scored four goals in the first quarter to stake Long Beach State to an early lead against the Bears, and ultimately finished with a season-high tying six goals despite limited minutes due early exclusions.

Leading 7-6 at halftime, Vergara scored Long Beach State's eighth goal and then assisted on a score from Raul Morales before picking up his third exclusion, giving the Beach a 9-6 lead. From there, the defense took center stage, holding Brown to just two goals in the second half behind 12 saves from Andrej Bosanac.

Aaron Arias kept the lead at three goals with an early fourth quarter goal, and Garrett Zaan sealed it with a goal in the final minute to send the Beach home unblemished in their time at Harvard and Brown.

                Long Beach State will play their final two home games over the next two weeks. First, the Beach will host No. 2 Cal on Thursday, October 20 with an early start time of 5 p.m., and then will honor their departing graduates against No. 1 Stanford on Senior Night on Friday, October 28.