(Walnut, CA) The Mt. SAC Men's Water Polo Team, having one of its best offensive seasons in a while, stayed with the CCCAA top-ranked Long Beach City College Vikings, but eventually fell, 10-8, in a South Coast Conference game at the Marie T. Mills Aquatics Center Wednesday (Oct. 16).
"I think it was a really good game for the team," Mt. SAC Men's Water Polo Coach Marc Ruh said. "We played three quarters of really good polo and then kind of ran out of gas in the fourth.
"I think it shows us that we can play with the best team in the state right now, so I hope that gives us a little confidence going into the later stage of the season. Obviously, we need to clean up some aspects of our game, and that will be a main focus for us."
Mt. SAC, which is 10-4 overall and 2-1 in conference, remains in third place behind leaders LBCC (19-0, 3-0) and Cerritos (16-7, 3-0).
"That was a super fun game," said freshman attacker Dillon Mannion. "I love playing against the highest level teams. This shows that we can play against anybody.
"We came out with a lot of aggression, but in the end we tried, but came up a little bit short."
Mannion (2 Stls.) had a game-high five goals for the Mounties and single goals were scored by Brandon Shew (2 Assists, Stl.), Brandon Knapp (2 Stls.) and Ian Tauer (1 Block).
The Mounties stayed even most of the game, tied 2-2 after the first period and 6-6 at the half.
Mannion scored all of his goals in the second and third periods.
Trailing, 4-2, midway through the second period, Mannion began a scoring streak as the only Mountie to score, reeling off five consecutive goals. His fifth goal gave the Mounties a 7-6 lead early in the third.
Long Beach then scored three of the next five goals to hold on for the victory.
The lone goal for the Mounties in the fourth period came with just 34 seconds left in the game by Knapp.
Mt. SAC goalie Andres Mercado made numerous point-blank saves in the game.
"We played them tight and it came to small things like steals," second-year player Jarrett Barker said. "We also had some struggles in the beginning with ejections and that's what set us off, especially me. I had two in the first quarter."
The Mounties travel North to play in the Cuesta College Tournament with five games in two days, Friday, Saturday (Oct. 18, 19).
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For additional information, please contact the Mt. SAC Sports Information Office at 909.274.4630.