The Long Beach State men’s water polo team suffered a 13-7 loss at home against Southern California on Saturday at the Ken Lindgren Aquatics Center.
“We just didn’t execute,” senior attacker Milos Vrzic said. “We had our chances. [USC] executed, and they deserved this one.”
Vrzic said that the amount of pressures that the team felt contributed to the 49ers’ falling to the Trojans.
“We expected to play better; however, we didn’t handle the pressure very well,” Vrzic said. “There’s no excuse because there is going to be a lot of pressure on us in our next [home] game too.”
Senior center Ricardo Guimaraes said he and his team foresaw the type of the game USC would bring, but he wants to look past the upsetting loss.
“We knew this would be a hard game, and we knew it was important for the MPSF standings,” Guimaraes said. “We need to shake it off because I think our mindset for this game wasn’t what it was supposed to be. We came in a little bit nervous and should be relaxed because we have a good team.”
Before LBSU returned home to face No. 3 USC (19-4, 4-2 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation), the fourth-ranked 49ers (17-5, 6-2 MPSF) defeated UC San Diego on the road 8-4 last Thursday.
Prior to the Trojans’ first and only showdown against the ‘Niners this season, USC head coach Jovan Vavic said he expected a very physical game.
“I just hope the officials will control [the game against LBSU],” Vavic said. “It’s very important how the officials allow the physical play to be played out. Our expectations are to improve from our last game against UCLA and play with a little more intelligence.”
First quarter ended with the Trojans leading the 49ers 4-2. Led by senior driver Rex Butler’s game-high five goals, USC catapulted to an 8-3 lead by halftime.
LBSU started out strong in the second half, cutting the deficit to as low as three goals.
Vrzic delivered a clutch skip-shot goal at the beginning of the third quarter.
Trojans’ Mihajlo Milicevic answered back for his team after he scored a goal at 9-4.
LBSU’s senior Dan Matulis drew a penalty shot after getting fouled hard in the middle by defenders, which allowed senior attacker Nolan McConnell to rifle his second goal of the game.
LBSU senior Nick Rascon scored his second goal of the game on a counter-attack play in the third quarter to keep his team in the game. The one-on-one goal cut the deficit back to three at 9-6, but that was the closest LBSU came to USC for the remainder of the game.
Rascon fired in three of LBSU’s seven goals. His third goal came in the fourth quarter, and that turned out to be the last score for LBSU.
USC goalkeeper Baron McQuin had 13 saves; LBSU’s Pavo Ljepopio saved 12 shots.
“We played three really bad quarters and finally decided after the third quarter to play good,” Vrzic said. “That cannot happen against a team a like USC, because they punish you for every single mistake.”
With two regular season games left, LBSU will host LMU on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Ken Lindgren Aquatics Center.