Splash Of The Titans: LBCC, Cerritos Will Battle For Men's Water Polo Crown in 2021
If anything, the first meeting between Long Beach City College and Cerritos in men's water polo this season showed just how close these two teams are from one another. The Vikings edged the Falcons, 18-17, in overtime at the Golden West Tournament in a Sept. 10 game that saw 13 ties and only one goal in the two 3-minute extra periods. The two squads figure to battle it out for the 2021 South Coast Conference title.
The Vikings, winners of 21 conference titles in their history in the SCC, have won 17 crowns in the 2000s and only Cerritos prevented a 21st century monopoly by LBCC with its South Coast championships in 2004, 2012 and 2016 (Mt. San Antonio did share the 2003 title with Long Beach).
With a 9-2 overall record and 2-0 SCC mark, Long Beach is led by Nikola Jancic with 22 goals and Nicholas Fedetov, who has a team-high 16 steals and nine goals. Both of LBCC's defeats have come at the hands of its greatest rival--Golden West College, the winner of the previous four state titles. The '19 state final was a 10-9 loss for the Vikings as the Rustlers rallied in the final minutes to win the crown again. Ironically, Golden West was once a member of the SCC, earning 14 South Coast titles between 1982-to-1999.
Cerritos is 8-2 overall (2-0 in conference play) and other than the Long Beach OT loss has a defeat against Saddleback (also played at the Goden West Tourney). Dominic Hernandez, who scored six goals in the Long Beach game, is the Falcons' top scorer this year with 31 goals and he leads the team in steals with 20. Mario Vanzilotta is another key player for Cerritos as he has 24 goals and 20 assists.
The next big game between Cerritos and Long Beach will be Oct. 13 at Cerritos.
Mt. San Antonio is 4-11 overall but also has a 2-0 SCC record with wins over Rio Hondo and Chaffey. Mt. SAC has a run on the conference stat leaders as it boasts the top goal scorer, Luke Noblett with 38, the top assists and steals leader Adam Dow with 35 helpers and 56 takeaways to go with 21 goals, and the top goalie saves leader in Kyle Leimbach with 151 stops.
El Camino stands at 3-9, but has lost eight in a row including conference defeats v. Cerritos and Long Beach. Cole Allyn leads the team with 35 goals, second in the conference.
Chaffey (1-3), El Camino (3-9) and Rio Hondo (2-12) are all winless in conference thus far with identical 0-2 SCC records.
Rio Hondo is paced by Aaron Ayala with 25 goals.