Report by LBCC’s Chris Ruiz, photos by John Fajardo

The Long Beach City College men’s water polo team suffered a 7-5 loss to Golden West College in Saturday’s championship final match of the 2009 California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) Water Polo State Championships at Golden West in Huntington Beach.

The Vikings came up just short in bringing home LBCC’s first state title trophy since 2006.

The game didn’t start well for Long Beach as the Vikings were missing team captain Sean Greiner after he was ejected from yesterday’s win over West Valley College and was forced to sit out today’s contest.

Golden West didn’t waste any time and opened the match with three straight goals to lead 3-0 at the 3:36 mark in the first.

LBCC finally broke that string with a goal by sophomore Daniel Lunga with 3:36 remaining in the opening quarter.

The Vikings trailed 5-3 at halftime and got as close as 5-4 with 5:33 left in the third quarter after a goal by freshman Janko Jovankovic.

But Golden West scored consecutive goals to close out the third quarter and dash the Vikings hopes.

Jovancovic gave LBCC some late hope with his second goal with 1:50 left in the game, but the Rustlers were able to run out the clock to wrap up the state title win.

Long Beach totaled 26 shots in the contest, including 10 in the opening quarter. Golden West goalie Robbby Poynton held the Vikings to just one goal thanks to six of his 12 saves in the first quarter.

Lunga and Jovancovic both scored twice for the Vikings and sophomore Dusan Ivanovski had a second-quarter goal.

Sophomore Duran Reid totaled eight saves and also had three steals in the loss.

Following the contest, Ivanovski, Greiner, and Lunga were named to the All-State Tournament team.

Long Beach closes the 2009 season with a 24-8 overall record. Under coaches Chris Oeding and Dave Kasa, the LBCC men made their seventh trip to the state championships over the past nine seasons.