MWP: Griffins advance to the SoCal semifinals!
Today the 7th seeded Griffin Men’s water polo team took on the 2nd ranked Vikings of Long Beach Community College, and came away with a 13-12 victory.
The Griffin men came out of the gate quickly winning the 1st qtr 5-3. Sophomore Defender Emiliano Castro and Freshman Driver Liam Zawadzki led the scoring attack with 2 goals apiece, and Sophomore Center Garrett Duardo contributed the 5th.
The 2nd was mostly a defensive affair with the Vikings winning the quarter 1-2, narrowing the Griffin lead to just 1goal. Sophomore Liam Zawadzki scored his 3rd goal of the match to help the Griffins finish the 1st half with a 6-5 lead.
The third quarter saw two distinctive momentum swings, the Griffins opened the quarter with a 4 -1 run to put the score at 10-6, but the Vikings answered the call and went on their own run to finish the quarter down only 10-9. Sophomore Center Garret Duardo came up big with 3 goals in the quarter, and Sophomore Anson Rasmusson tossed in his only game of the day.
The 4th quarter saw Long Beach get their first and only lead of the game when they scored 2 goals to open the period, but the Griffins answered quickly with 2 goals from Sophomore Brock Kammerer and Emiliano Castro came up big with his 3rd goal in the match. With about 1:15 remaining in the game the Griffins went into a ball control offense to run down the clock. The Vikings used two timeouts to try and even the score but both efforts were turned away. Coach Lackey called his final timeout with roughly 25 seconds remaining, had the team spread out and put the ball in Brock Kammerer's sure hands to protect and preserve the lead.
Freshman Goalkeeper Parker George played outstanding in the cage recording 15 saves in the match. Austin Gaier and Garrett Duardo lead the defense with 3 steals each, and Brock Kammerer notched 4 assists on the game.
With the win, the Griffin's improve their record to 24-12 on the season, and return to the Southern California Regional Semifinals for the first time since 2011. The Griffins will play the Wildcats of Saddleback community college tomorrow, 9:45 am, at Southwestern College.
The winner will play in the SoCal Finals at 3:00 pm, and automatically qualify for the state championships held next week at Las Positas College.
