LONG BEACH Calif. – The No. 11 Pepperdine men's water polo team took to Long Beach for the first Golden Coast Conference matchup with the 49ers of Long Beach State on Friday night. The Waves came out with a solid 10-8 victory, led by hat tricks from Mate Toth and Sam Paur.

The Waves (7-6, 1-0 GCC) and 49ers (6-5) always play tough, physical games, and Friday was no different.

GAME RECAP

Pepperdine had the hot hand early, taking a quick 3-0 lead after Toth (Balatonalmadi, Hungary/Szilagyi Erzsebet Boarding School), Paur (Poway, Calif./Poway HS), Chris Dilworth (Thousand Oaks, Calif./Thousand Oaks HS) and George Mooney (Whittier, Calif./La Serna HS) all scored within the first five minutes. The 49ers got two goals back toward the end of the period, but trailing the Waves 3-2 at the end of the first.

The 49ers took the momentum they gained from the first quarter into the second, scoring three more before Paur completed his hat trick with back-to-back goals to regain the lead. Long Beach got one more goal to tie the game at the halfway point, 6-6.

Curtis Jarvis (Huntington Beach, Calif./Huntington Beach HS) scored the lone goal for the Waves in the third. Long beach also scored just a single goal in the third, so the game moved to the fourth locked at 7.

The fourth quarter was all Waves, who scored three goals. Dilworth got his second goal of the game to give the Waves an 8-7 lead. Toth then scored his final two goals of the game to all but seal the win for the Waves. Long Beach scored one final goal as the clock expired, but it was not enough as the Waves took the win.

STATS

Scoring: PEPP – 4-2-1-3-10 ; CSULB – 2-4-1-1-8

Goals: PEPP – Paur (3), Toth (3), Dilworth (2), Jarvis, Mooney ; CSULB – Wicken (2), Wong (2), Arias, Cusator, Miocevic, Stewart

Saves: PEPP – Marco-13 ; CSULB – Darwish -9

UP NEXT

The Waves are back in action Saturday at the Gary Troyer Tournament in Claremont, Calif. with two games. They will take on Claremont-Mudd-Scripps at 1 p.m. and Pomona-Pitzer at 6:20 p.m.