In their last regular-season game of the season, senior Ash Blythen and junior goalie Derek Wiebe-Bailey led the 49ers to a 7-4 victory over MPSF Conference rival UC Irvine. With the win, the Beach secured a 7th seed in next weekend’s conference tournament.
Today’s matchup was an important one for both Long Beach State (14-15, 2-6) and the visiting UCI Anteaters (10-13, 2-7); besides the Black and Blue rivalry between the two schools, a victory in today’s game would ensure a seventh seed in the MPSF Tournament. Both squads put up a fight in the first period. Though neither side scored a goal, both defenses were on the mark, including some outstanding goalie saves from 49er Derek Wiebe-Bailey and ‘Eater Matt Johnson.
In the second period, UCI scored the first goal of the game with a shot at 7:40 left in the period. The next goal came another five minutes later, and the Anteaters held a 2-0 lead with 2 minutes left in the half. The Beach responded quickly with a shot from senior Ashley Blythen, and a Kevin vanHaaster goal with :21 seconds on the clock left the squads tied 2-2 heading into halftime.
Long Beach State took control of the third period early, with successive goals from Jeff Greenwood, Jake Kinne and Justin Koeppen. Irvine was able to score once in the period, and the Beach led 5-3 after three.
UC Irvine pulled to within 1 early in the fourth period, but the Anteaters would score no more goals in the game. Long Beach State tacked on two more, including goals from Pavle Filipovic and Blythen’s second shot of the game.
Junior goalie Derek Wiebe-Bailey stepped up huge for the 49ers today with 11 saves, some of the shots coming from point-blank range.
Regarding today’s senior day, Wiebe-Bailey said after the game, “This one was for them.”
Long Beach State will play as the seventh seed in next weekend’s MPSF Tournament hosted by Pepperdine. Because of the three-way tie for second place, the 49ers’ opponent will not be known until after all games have been played today. Fighting for the second seed are UCLA, Pepperdine and Stanford.
From LBSU reports