Huntington Beach, Calif. - Golden West men's water polo (28-3, 7-0 OEC) earned their ninth straight SoCal Regional Championship Title and 36th in program history at Citrus College over the November 9-11 weekend.
For the ninth-consecutive year, the No. 1 Rustlers have been named SoCal Regional Champions and will be moving forward to the State Tournament alongside the Long Beach City Vikings. On Friday, Golden West was successful in taking down Palomar with a dominant performance. Saturday brought a double-header appearance with a one score victory over Cerritos and the championship win against Long Beach City.
11/10/2023 vs No. 8 Palomar, 19-7
The Rustlers flexed their high power offensive versus the Comets as the No. 1 team scored 19 goals. In their first game of the SoCal Championships, Golden West scored fast and early with seven goals in the first eight minutes. The Comets were able to find the net three times in the first frame, but were silenced in the second as they went scoreless. The Rustlers rode an 11-3 lead into halftime and looked to extend their already large advantage. Golden West would score eight more times and only allow Palomar four more goals in the second half. The Rustlers performed incredibly well in their first appearance in the bracket to defeat the Comets, 19-7.
Ethan Carrington led Golden West in goals as he found the net four times with three of them being in the first quarter. Vincent Labonte recorded a team leading three steals, while also scoring twice and stated an assist. Cooper Wiens was second in scoring with three goals off of three shots and had an assist. In net, Pablo Souza and Braeden Sanders saved three Comet shots each as Jose Antonio Silva recorded four saves.
11/11/2023 vs No. 5 Cerritos, 13-12
In their second matchup, Golden West competed against Cerritos in a nail biter finish. The Rustlers went down early as the Falcons scored three unanswered goals to open the game. The No. 1 team stepped it up in the second frame as they took their first lead of the matchup just before halftime, 6-5. Out of the gate for the second half, Golden West worked to extend their edge in the hard fought battle. The Rustlers were able to go up four scores as the matchup entered the final eight minutes of play, 11-8. Cerritos clawed their way back to regain a late game lead 11-12 with :58 seconds left in regulation. With :40 seconds to go, Tomas De Luca came up with a huge score to tie the Falcons, 12-12. Tommy Kelly stepped up to net the game-winner at the :14 second mark and won the matchup for Golden West, 13-12.
Itay Roth scored the most goals for the Rustlers with four in the game and three in the first half with three steals. De Luca found the net twice with a game-tying goal with :40 seconds left in the matchup and recorded a steal. Kelly only had one score but in a big moment as the game-winner with :14 seconds left in the final quarter. Souza was in net for all four frames and saved 12 Falcons shots to lead the Rustlers to the one score victory over Cerritos.
11/11/2023 vs No. 7 Long Beach City, 15-10
Long Beach City fought hard to make it to the SoCal Regional Championship game. As the No. 7 seed, the Vikings played on November 9th when they defeated the Cypress Chargers by ten. On the second day of the tournament, Long Beach City faced off against the No. 2 Saddleback Bobcats. In a rematch from October 21st, the Vikings redeemed themselves to knock out the Bobcats, 12-8. To get to the SoCal Championship game, the Vikings had to get past the Cuesta Cougars. In a three score victory, Long Beach won against Cuesta to go on and face No. 1 Golden West for the SoCal Regional Championship Title.
Unlike their opponent, the Rustlers had earned the privilege to not play on November 9th. Golden West was coming off of a close one goal win over the No. 5 Cerritos Falcons earlier in the day, 13-12. The Rustlers did not repeat their first quarter woes as they jumped ahead of the Vikings with four unanswered scores to open play. After two frames, Long Beach City struggled to keep up as they managed to nearly cut their deficit in half, 9-4. The Rustlers worked to separate themselves from the Vikings on the scoreboard but Long Beach City would not go down easy. Up three as the No. 1 team entered the final eight minutes, they scored four more in the fourth quarter to ice the matchup, 15-10.
Alec Johnson led the scoring for Golden West with five goals, stole the ball twice and had an assist. De Luca was second in goals with three, recorded the most assists at seven and stated two steals. Itay Roth stole the ball the most on the team with three and assisted in two scores. In net for four quarters, Souza saved ten shots from 20 Vikings attempts. With the win over Long Beach City, Golden West has now won nine straight SoCal Regional Championships and added their 36th to program history.
NEXT UP: The Rustlers will now advance to the State Championship Tournament along with the Long Beach City Vikings to represent the Southern Region. The tournament will begin on November 16th at Marin College with opponents and times to be announced at a later time.
