Men’s Water Polo Dominates Air Force At Home

Friday, September 27

Long Beach, Calif.

6 p.m.

Long Beach State University

Air Force

Long Beach State

Photo by: John Fajardo

9/27/2024 7:45:00 PM | Men's Water Polo

Box Score

Harper Stewart led the Beach with his first career hat trick.

By: Luiza Moraes - Athletics Communication Assistant

LONG BEACH, Calif. – No. 9 Long Beach State (8-5) defeated the Air Force Falcons (8-7) by a score of 20-6 Friday night.

The Beach got things started with senior Bruno Chiappini scoring on the first minute of the game. The Falcons answered quickly with a goal by Tom Leggett. Evan Cain put the Beach back in the lead with a penalty shot. Freshman Artur Diaz scored his first goal for the Beach to extend the lead to two. Junior Riley Catino scored another for the Beach before the Air Force answered with a goal by Jacob Yi. Sophomore Caleb Francisco and Freshman Corbin Stanley scored back-to-back goals to put the Beach up 6-2 on the first quarter.

In the second quarter of the game, Senior Aaron Wilson shut down the Air Force offense and the Beach scored five goals in a row to go into halftime 11-2. Evan Cain, Riley Catino, Nikola Jancic, Alec Johnson and Michael Soybel scored on the quarter to help the Beach extend the lead.

Long Beach State controlled the rest of the game led by Freshman Harper Stewart scoring his first career hat trick for the Beach. Wilson finished the games with 11 saves by the end of the third quarter before switching with Freshman goalkeeper Joe Jenness. Long Beach State outscored Air Force 9-2 in the second half and cruised to a 20-6 victory.

Harper Stewart led the Beach with three goals. Evan Cain, Riley Catino, Alec Johnson and Corbin Stanley added two goals for the Beach while Bruno Chiappini, Artur Diaz, Caleb Francisco, Nikola Jancic, Botond Hajdu, Kostantinos Kapragkos, Jovan Mandic, Luke Makshanoff and Michael Soybel all scored one goal in the game.

The Beach will head to Malibu, Calif. to face No. 4 Pepperdine on Saturday at Noon. The Waves come from an undefeated weekend at the WCC-Big West Challenge after defeating No. 20 California Baptist, No. 13 UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Fullerton. Christian Hosea leads the Waves in offense with 32 goals scored so far in the season. The contest will be live streamed on ESPN+ and stats can be followed on thefosh.net.