After jumping out to a 3-2 lead in the first quarter, the No. 6 Long Beach State men’s water polo team lost to No. 3 USC 13-8 Saturday at Lindgren Aquatics Center.
Against a tough opponent, the 49ers took an early 3-2 after the first period, but the defense wasn’t able to hold up once the Trojans’ offense got going.
“We knew it was going to be [a tough game] in the beginning,” USC junior driver Mateo Morelli said. “This is a tough pool [to play in], [it has] a good crowd.”
After holding the Trojans to only two goals in the first quarter, LBSU gave up nine goals in the second and third periods.
“It was a really tough game in the beginning,” Morelli said. “As the game went on we scored a couple goals and the momentum went our way.”
The 49ers scored two more goals in the second quarter, trailing USC 6-5 going into halftime.
“A couple moments, they got some easy goals on us and we needed to get stops,” LBSU head coach Gavin Arroyo said. “I’m not big on blaming the officials, but the officials helped them stay in the game a little bit.”
The start of the second half didn’t go the way the 49ers wanted has the team gave up five goals in the third period to head into the fourth period trailing, 11-6.
“We kind of just let it slip, there was a couple of calls we were not ready for, a couple of turnovers that lead to their capitalization,” 49er freshman utility Jack Dodson said. “ It was the little things like [those] … that we could not come back in time [from].”
Arroyo mentioned that USC is a great team and they will find a way to take advantage of those scoring opportunities.
“[Overall] we just got to get more composed under pressure,” Arroyo said. “We are trying to put ourselves in a position where we are competitive in conference championships.”
The 49ers will take on Pacific University in Stockton Friday at 7 p.m.