COSTA MESA, Calif. --- No. 10 seed El Camino College hung tight with No. 7 Cerritos but ultimately fell, 15-14, in sudden death overtime at the 3C2A Southern California Water Polo Regionals held at the Orange Coast College Aquatics Pavilion on Thursday night.
In the final match of the day, the Warriors nearly overcame their conference nemesis this season as they were 20 seconds away from victory in regulation but ultimately fell to the Falcons for the third time this season.
The Warriors jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first quarter as goals from Max Hale, Heitor Trefilio and Robbie Josic gave the Warriors their biggest lead over the Falcons in any match this season.
But the Falcons responded with two goals to end the first and one to begin the second to knot things back up at 3-3.
It was back and forth from there with neither team leading by more than one until the 5:04 mark of the fourth quarter when Brayden Sanchez and Cooper Josic scored 1:18 apart, putting ECC up 11-9.
Once again, the Falcons responded with two straight goals to tie things up again and the back-and-forth action commenced again through regulation.
Robbie Josic put the Warriors up 13-12 with 2:58 left and the lead held until John Gaytan found the back of the net with 20 seconds left to tie it up 13-13 and send the match to overtime.
The two extra periods were short on scoring with Tim Robles putting the Falcons up with 1:31 left in the first overtime.
In the second extra period, neither team was able to score and, with five seconds left in their season, Scott Fujiwara played the hero at the moment as he scored the game-tying goal for the Warriors to send the match into sudden-death overtime.
Unfortunately, it was Robles again for the Falcons who found the back of the net to lift the Falcons to a win and a second-round matchup against No. 2 seed Long Beach.
The Warriors conclude the 2024 season with a 23-13 overall record and a third-place showing at the SCC Tournament. They recorded their first postseason berth since 2019 and second since 1993. The team also tied the program record with 23 wins this season. The 1993 squad went 23-15-1 on the year.