LBCC’s men’s water polo team came out victorious in the first round of the 3C2A State Championships after a thrilling buzzer-beater from Colley Ochoa to put the Vikings up 9-8 over American River College on On Thursday.
“I mean I created an advantage off my guy and I had a lot of space so I flipped on my back and saw my teammate Max had the ball. We made eye contact, he threw it to me, and then I saw there was like 3 seconds left so I turned around and just threw (the ball) where I thought it’d go in and it went right over the goalie’s head,” said Ochoa.
The victory came after four grueling quarters with both teams scoring neck and neck until the last second of regulation play.
“Obviously, there’s always stuff to improve but we got the win, that’s all that matters. I’m just proud of them because we were giving up goals but we stayed in it and fought back so I’m proud of everybody right now,” said Ochoa.
Sophomore Sandro Pueyo had an impressive game, scoring five of the Vikings’ nine goals. Three of which were scored in the third quarter alone.
“We played really intensely in the beginning. We knew it was not gonna be an easy game because American River has a good team. I think the key was to keep working even though some of our things didn’t work in the beginning. When you keep working and keep fighting, at the end everything pays off,” Pueyo said.
Cooper Haddad contributed with two goals of his own and one crucial steal to keep American River from scoring.
Freshman Maxwell Earheart also had a goal and a team-high 4 steals and 1 block in a fantastic defensive effort to pressure American River into making bad passes.
Thomaz Figueiredo and Louis Hackett each had two assists that helped the team stay afloat.
While the two teams never had the chance to play each other in the regular season, LBCC’s Matthew Kingston said they knew they had to come out hard and come up with a winning strategy.
“The main goal was to look around for our team and our center and getting the ball in the cage. Next game we may just have to work on our awareness and finishing but I’m proud of how today went,” Kingston said.
The Vikings are now set to face defending 3C2A state champions Golden West College on Friday at 1pm. The two teams have met twice in the regular season, most recently Nov. 2, with the Rustlers coming out victorious both times.
The winner of Friday’s game will go on to play in the semifinals of the State Championships.