THE COMMUNITY COLLEGES : State Water Polo : With Tight Defense, Long Beach Stops Golden West to Defend Title

Long Beach College on Saturday ended its season in the same way it started--as the top water polo team in the state--with a 12-7 victory over Golden West in the final of the state community college water polo tournament at Belmont Plaza.

It was the second consecutive championship and fourth overall for Long Beach, which was top-ranked in the preseason state coaches’ poll.

Using a strong defense to frustrate Golden West throughout the game, Long Beach shut down Scott Larsen and Craig Douglas. Larsen, who led Golden West with 93 goals this season, didn’t score against Long Beach. He picked up two fouls in the first quarter and was taken out of the hole position on offense and defense to protect against getting his third and fourth fouls, which would have resulted in an ejection.

Douglas, who had 73 goals this season, scored just one for Golden West (25-2). Arn Van Dyke was the top scorer for the Rustlers with two goals.

“Larsen wasn’t on his game for whatever reason, and once he had the two fouls, that hurt,” said Ken Hamdorf, Golden West coach. “That changed our offense and defense a lot.”

Long Beach opened a 5-3 lead at the end of the first quarter and extended it to 8-5 at halftime and 11-5 at the end of three quarters.

Reggie Torres and Tim Inskeep had five goals each for Long Beach (25-2). Long Beach also got a big lift from goalie Yanich Laffiche, who was a member of the French national team last summer.

Laffiche had 13 saves, but Golden West also had seven shots rebound off the face of the goal.

Saturday’s match was the seventh time--and the third consecutive time--that the teams had met this season. Long Beach won the South Coast Conference championship two weeks ago, and Golden West won the Southern California Regional championship last Saturday. Long Beach won five of the seven meetings this season.