The No. 8 Long Beach State men’s water polo team staged a wild fourth quarter comeback attempt against No. 5 UC Irvine, but the Anteaters prevailed 9-7 as a string of late penalties doomed the 49ers in their home opener at the Campus Pool on Saturday.
The Beach (7-7, 0-1 MPSF) rallied from a three goal deficit to tie the game at 6 midway through the final frame of the contest, which also served as its Mountain Pacific Sports Federation opener.
The Anteaters came back with three goals in the final four minutes to take the win.
LBSU was hit hard by the referees as the exclusion disparity was 14-6 for the game. The Beach was called for seven exclusions in the fourth quarter alone.
“Any player would think that we have been victimized in this situation, but it fluctuates with every game and we have to be able to get the stops,” said junior Taylor Clute.
Sophomore Barry Snyder and Clute had each picked up their third exclusion and were ejected two minutes into the third quarter, forcing The Beach to play out the second half without two of its starters.
“It’s always tough when that happens,” said head coach Gavin Arroyo.
Arroyo remained adamant that his team needed to come up with stops on the defensive end regardless of the number of times they were a man down.
UCI (13-3, 2-0 MPSF) opened the game by winning the first quarter 3-1. It was clear, though, that LBSU would be in this one the whole way as the 49ers were getting after it on defense. Sophomore Carter Taylor had three steals for The Beach in the quarter.
LBSU goalkeeper Matt Kubeck stepped up with a big second quarter for the 49ers as he notched five saves. The sophomore finished the game with 13 saves on 22 shots.
Trailing 3-0, freshman Dan Matulis got The Beach on the scoreboard with an inside spin move and Carter Taylor followed that up by converting on a breakaway set up by freshman Nick Rascon.
The 49ers were down 4-2 going into the second half.
The Beach traded goals with the Anteaters in the third quarter, but the momentum altering play didn’t occur until the final seconds of the quarter.
With the 49ers down by three, senior Patrick van der Linde thought he had scored a power play goal for LBSU, but the officials ruled that a shot clock malfunction made the players think the quarter was over.
The referees then had the two teams play the power play over again with 19 seconds left in the quarter and Matulis converted once more.
The Beach carried momentum with them into the final frame, managing to tie the game up with goals from van der Linde and junior Alexsandr Petrovic. The game got away from the 49ers, however, as UCI scored on the power play three consecutive possessions to take a 9-6 lead.
LBSU narrowed the gap to two when van der Linde completed his hat trick with 1:09 remaining in the game, but the 49ers were unable to get the ball back as the Anteaters ran run clock out with a two-man advantage.
The 49ers hit the road to face No. 6 UC Santa Barbara at noon on Saturday.
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