Pirates fall to Rustlers in SoCal Regional semifinals

RIVERSIDE -- Another fantastic season by the Orange Coast College men's water polo team has reached the finish line as the Pirates fall to Golden West, 16-8, in the semifinals of the 2019 Southern California Regional Championships last weekend, hosted by Riverside City College.

OCC finishes the 2019 season with a solid 17-7 record, earning a spot among the top teams in recent Pirate water polo history.

The regional playoffs opened on Thursday with a matchup against El Camino and there, the Pirates rolled to a 21-8 win, setting up their showdown with the Rustlers. Leading 5-4 after one quarter, OCC used the two middle quarters to pull away from the Warriors (20-11), outscoring them 11-3 over that span. ECC, making its first postseason appearance since 1993, was unable to overcome such a run and the Pirates cruised to victory from there.

Nicholas Fichman, who set an OCC record with eight goals one week prior to Thursday's match with the Warriors, continued his fine play with five goals and two assists in the regional win, while Luke Rhone added three goals and two assists and Andrej Maodus tossed in two to go along with two assists.

Single goals were turned in by Arnaud Parmentier, Jose Castaneda, Felix Rivera, Charlie Shobe, Wyatt Ramirez and Jared Smailes, while Felipe Rocha dished out three assists.

In goal, Connor Halloran came up with nine saves before turning the match over to Parsa Pakdel, who picked up a save of his own.

In the semifinals against Golden West -- the third meeting between the two Orange Empire Conference rivals over the past 15 days, OCC hung tough with the Rustlers and trailed only 4-2 after the opening quarter. But, after slipping past Coast in the OEC Championships six days earlier (9-7), Golden West pulled away and would not let the Pirates get back into the contest.

Rhone led the offense with three goals, while Fichman added two. Halloran had eight saves in the loss.

It was a standout season for the Pirates, who outscored their opposition 348-194 this year and 102-48 in conference play, averaging nearly 15 goals per contest. Earlier in the year, OCC set a school record with 28 goals on Oct. 23 as the Pirates rolled past Fullerton, 28-10. Coast reached the 20-goal mark seven different times this year and with 11 freshmen on this year's roster, the future continues to look bright for the program moving forward.