Additional reporting by Vince Girimonte
Momentum can change a game, even when it’s submerged in water. LBSU Water Polo learned this on Saturday against the top-ranked USC Trojans, with key mental mistakes down the stretch giving the vaunted attack from USC all the breathing room they needed to pull away 12-6.
Throughout the game, USC used their size and power to push the 49er attack towards the outside, forcing many possession to end with a last second shot. Long Beach Wilson High grad and US Olympian Matt Sagehorn was active in the middle, opening lanes on the wings for Trojan shot. The Trojans jumped out to an early lead, closing the first period up 2-0, and looking every bit like the number one team in the nation (USC hasn’t lost a game and is 18-0 after the win). In the second, Long Beach goalie Derek Wiebe-Bailey really stepped up his play, blocking a bunny shot over his head and sealing the side posts when USC tried to drive with an angle. It was more of the same, in the third, with USC looking bigger and stronger, but a few key exclusion penalties and great scrappy play from Long Beach keeping them in the contest, especially from Keith vanHaaster, the 6’3″ senior center who’s the team’s third-leading scorer on the season. The 49ers’ leading scorer, Jeff Greenwood, was held scoreless.
Despite USC’s offensive power, the 49ers countered effectively, playing well when they were shorthanded and capitalizing on opportunities when they were a man up. Going into the fourth period, they were only down 7-4, and a huge upset seemed within reach. Then almost immediately, the 49ers struck again forty-five seconds into the fourth, pulling them within two.
That’s when things got weird. vanHaaster, by far the 49ers’ most effective offensive player in the game, apparently decided the Trojans’ Sagehorn was getting a little too chippy, probably in retaliation for an earlier shot that was decidedly below the Speedo line. vanHaaster, furious, put all of his 245 pounds behind a staggering blow to the back of Sagehorn’s head, eliciting an ejection for the “brutality” call. Yes, brutality is a penalty in water polo. Sagehorn took a penalty shot, but Wiebe-Bailey made a great play in net to knock it down. Despite losing vanHaaster, momentum was still on the ‘Niners’ side, down only two against the rattled Trojans.
Then LBSU made a mistake they couldn’t recover from, giving USC a penalty shot opportunity on an illegal substitution call. USC coach Jovan Vavic let Sagehorn take the shot, and this time he netted it, giving USC an 8-5 lead; they then went on a 3-0 run to put the game out of reach, en route to the 12-7 victory.
“Those mistakes were momentum shifters,” said Long Beach head coach Gavin Arroyo. “We played three good quarters, but you can’t give a team like them a chance to throw off your momentum.”
Wilson grad Matt Sagehorn hassles the home team
