The California Lutheran University men’s water polo team played aggressively against the Cerritos College Falcons at the Samuelson Aquatics Center, outscoring them 16-7. 

In the first minute of the match, the Kingsmen found the back of the net with a goal by first-year utility player Dillon Goldsmith on Friday, Oct. 12. Following the opening goal, the Kingsmen tacked on five more goals to finish the quarter 6-2.

“[Head Coach Craig Rond] wanted us to push it in the first quarter,” junior attacker George Lundgren said. “He knew if we could hop on this team early, then we could probably win the game.”

As the Kingsmen switched sides to start the second quarter, Rond told his team to “continue with great defense, and all the other stuff opens up for you.”

The Kingsmen did just that, matching it with a strong offensive effort for three more early goals in the second quarter. The Kingsmen continued their hard work on defense, only allowing two goals from the Falcons in the second quarter.

At the half, the Kingsmen led 9-4. 

Moving into the third quarter, the Kingsmen expanded on their aggressive start. With another early goal scored in the first minute, the Kingsmen were able to grow the lead to 10-4.

Cal Lutheran followed with three more goals to bring them to 13-5 at the end of the quarter.

In the final quarter of play, the Kingsmen continued their streak with yet another goal in the first minute of the quarter. The Kingsmen triumphed over the Falcons 16-7.

“It’s pretty important to have a win like this and feel confident in our system going into the SCIAC games that are going to be pretty crucial,” senior center defender Justin English said. “We have a structure that we built the last couple of weeks and we are going to continue with this structure staying in as good of shape as possible…and keep playing the way we’re playing.”

The win puts the Kingsmen at 9-9 overall and 2-4 in conference play, sitting seventh of nine in the SCIAC standings.

“We had a tough loss Wednesday, [Oct. 10] so it was good to get a win here,” Lundgren said. “We seized the opportunities that were given to us.”

The team has its first weekend off in over a month before heading into a significant week of conference play. They are scheduled to face three SCIAC opponents in a row: University of Redlands on Oct. 16, Whittier College on Oct. 18 and California Institute of Technology on Oct. 20.

“We’ll get a nice weekend off and get back to work on Monday,” Lundgren said.

Joe Zimmerly
Reporter