Long Beach, Mt. SAC vie for South Coast Conference men's water polo supremacy

PASADENA - Long Beach City College and Mt. San Antonio took turns the past two seasons at the top of the South Coast Conference in men's water polo.

This season, the two programs are already battling it out as the Vikings are #5 and the Mounties #6 on this week's CCCWPCA State Top 10.

LBCC, which has won six of the last seven SCC championships overall, is 5-3, but 2-0 in SCC games. Two of the team's losses are v. #1 Golden West, 15-10, and #2 West Valley, 12-9, while the other was a defeat v. 4-year university Cal State Long Beach. 

The Vikings have a 22-8 win over #7 Modesto and were not taxed in conference wins over Chaffey, 19-4, and Rio Hondo, 25-3, on Sept. 24. 

SCC '23 champion Mt. San Antonio (7-3) beat #4 Cuesta, 11-10, and went 3-1 overall at the Mt. SAC Invitational, losing to Golden West, 14-9. The Mounties had earlier beaten the U.S. Air Force Academy at their annual trip to Colorado Springs, 16-15. Among their few defeats was against Whittier College, 16-11. In its only SCC contest thus far, the Walnut squad routed Rio Hondo, 30-5. 

On Oct. 15, Long Beach faces Mt. SAC in their SCC matchup. The SCC Championship Tournament takes place Nov. 6-8 at Cerritos College. 

Cerritos (8-6) was ranked No. 7 in the South Top 10 and played a tough opening Merced Tournament, suffering losses v. #3 American River, Modesto and #9 Diablo Valley. The Falcons beat North #6 Cabrillo, 14-9, and took third place at the Cypress Tournament. In SCC play, Cerritos opened with a 24-7 triumph over Chaffey.

Individually, Chaffey's Vincent Garibay leads SCC scorers in goals with 48 while returning All-SCC First Team selection and Mt. SAC attacker Trevor Davis has 33 goals and is tied for the SCC lead in assists with 22. Other Mounties' leaders are All-SCC Second Team returner Nicolas Flores and Jacob Carlson, who has 26 goals and team-high 24 steals.

Mt. SAC's Jacob Carlson

Long Beach returns All-SCC players in Michael Trujillo and Louis Hackett while also led by a high scorer in Federico Gulisano, who had 21 goals in the early going. 

Cerritos' Julian Almanza is in the top 5 in the four key statistical categories, including 38 goals and a SCC-high 37 steals. Falcons goalie Aiden Parra made 121 saves and holds a SCC-best .506 save percentage. 

El Camino's Robbie Josic, All-SCC in 2024, recently passed the 100-goal mark in his career. Rio Hondo has a high scorer in Arik Aguirre, who totaled 37 goals in the team's first 13 games. 

(Robert Lewis, South Coast Conference)