Malibu, Calif. – Thanks to a hat trick from Chris Dilworth, the #6 Pepperdine men's water polo team came back to defeat #8 Long Beach State 10-9 on Sunday.
The Waves (21-7, 3-1 GCC) and Beach (14-12, 1-3 GCC) each led for two quarters, but the Waves made a second-half comeback to take the victory.
GAME RECAP
The game started slowly, with the two teams combining for just three goals in the first quarter. Long Beach had a 2-0 lead before Balazs Kosa (Budapest, Hungary/Csik Ferenc Altalanos Iskola es Gimnazium) scored for the Waves and cut the lead in half. After eight minutes of play, the Beach led 2-1. In the second, the Beach got the first goal of the period before Mate Toth (Balatonalmadi, Hungary/Szilagyi Erzsebet Boarding School) scored to keep the lead to one. Long Beach State then scored three times in a row to take a 6-3 lead. Michael Dakis (Orinda, Calif./Miramonte HS) scored, as did Sean Ferrari (Redwood City, Calif./St. Francis HS) just before the half. At the half, Long Beach State led 6-4.
Dilworth (Thousand Oaks, Calif./Thousand Oaks HS) scored his first goal to open the second half. He was followed by a goal from Austin Smit (San Diego, Calif./Cathedral Catholic HS) to tie the game at six. Long Beach took the lead with a goal in the middle of the third. Then Dilworth tied the game back up with his second goal of the day. Toth scored his second to give the Waves an 8-7 lead before Long Beach scored a goal with two second left in the quarter to tie the game going into the final eight minutes. Dilworth scored the first goal of the fourth quarter to retake the lead. He was followed by Dakis's second of the game with 1:20 left to play to go up 10-8. Long Beach scored with a second left to play, but could not complete the comeback, giving the Waves the 10-9 victory.
STATS
SCORING: PEPP—1—3—4—2—10 ; LBSU—2—4—2—1—9
GOALS: PEPP— Dilworth (3), Dakis (2), Toth (2), Ferrari, Kosa, Smit ; LBSU— Bakic (2), Pateros (2), Stewart (2), Brunochelli, Wainberg
SAVES: PEPP— J. Marco (9) ; LBSU— Darwish (8)
UP NEXT
The Waves have the final home regular season game of the year next Saturday, taking on UC Santa Barbara at noon. It will also be senior day to honor the five seniors on the team.
