Top seeds cruise into 3C2A Men's Water Polo Semifinals

Tournament Central (brackets, links to watch, etc.) l Photos

MERCED - The 3C2A Men's Water Polo State Championships inched closer to a highly anticipated Golden West vs. West Valley championship rematch after a quartet of quarterfinal contests Thursday at Merced College.

Thursday, the Rustlers dominated, and the Vikings endured a slow start, while Orange Coast and Long Beach City held off their NorCal opponents to also advance to Semifinal Friday. While a lot of attention is focused on GWC and WVC, OCC and LBCC are not be overlooked as they try to stake their own claim on a championship Friday morning.

(N1) West Valley over (S4) San Diego Mesa 19-8
The tournament opener had north No. 1 West Valley going up against south No. 4 San Diego Mesa. The game was all Mesa for the first eight minutes as the Olympian defense completely shut down the state's top offense. Santiago Gonzales gave Mesa a 3-1 lead early in the second quarter, which seemed to ignite the slumbering Vikings, as they reeled off seven unanswered goals from seven different players to take an 8-3 lead at the break.

Liam Rogers and Tristran Grimmett opened the third with goals that extended WVC's lead to 10-3. The Vikings added four more scores in the quarter to counter three Olympian tallies. West Valley (30-3) put it away in the fourth, outscoring Mesa 5-2 for the 19-8 final.

Grimmett paced the Vikings with five goals, while Gonzalez led the Olympians with four. San Diego Mesa finished their season 26-11.

(S2) Orange Coast over (N3) Sierra 15-10
Two goals apiece from Jack McCann and Stan Schuring staked the Pirates to a 5-2 first-quarter lead they never relinquished. Sierra's Damon Winton and Rhett Wildenradt scored twice in the second to tighten things up, but OCC scored four of their own to take a 9-4 lead into halftime.

The Pirates (26-9) outscored the Wolverines (17-13) 3-2 in the third quarter for a 12-6 lead and then withstood a furious Sierra rally in the final stanza. Four different Wolverines found the back of the cage in the fourth and it took a pair of Dylan Morris tallies and one from leading scorer Cade Zeilinger to clinch the win.

Zeilinger led OCC with four goals, while Winton, Wildenradt, Peter Poirier, and JJ Skeehan all scored twice for Sierra.

(S1) Golden West over (N4) Modesto 25-5
The eight-time defending champion Rustlers had their pedal to the metal from the opening sprint, racing out to a 10-0 lead and keeping the Pirates off the scoreboard until there were 17 seconds left in the first. Seven different Rustlers scored in the opening quarter, paced by two each from Nash Kearney, Gavin Templeton and Lucca Van Der Woude.

Golden West (35-2) blanked Modesto (21-12) 4-0 in the second and then 4-2 in the third for an 18-3 lead heading to the fourth. Kearney and Szaboics Kern added two more goals each to help the Rustlers to a 7-2 fourth quarter.

Kearney and Templeton paced the stat sheet with four and three goals, respectively, while seven different Rustlers found the back of the cage twice. Four Golden West keepers saw time in the cage. Mike Rowan led the Pirates with three goals.

(S3) Long Beach City over (N2) American River 16-12
The Vikings came out on fire, leading 4-0 with just over two minutes remaining in the opening quarter. LBCC (24-7) continued their incendiary ways in the second, doubling up the Beavers (16-13) 6-3 for a 10-4 lead at the half.

Ivan Cubalic added his fifth and sixth goals of the game in the third quarter to counter Rowan Taggatz's third and fourth for ARC. The Vikings enjoyed a 14-7 advantage after three, but in the fourth had to battle an America River squad that didn't want its season to end.

Taggatz connected twice to bring the Beavers to within 14-9, and solo scores from Renzo Archer, Jack McGoldrick and Luke Kneeland countered Viking goals from Frederico Gulisano and Elijah Molina to make for the exciting 16-12 final.

Cubelic and Gulisano led the way for the Vikings with six and five goals, respectively. Taggatz tallied six scores for ARC.

(Matt Folsom, CCCSIA)