LONG BEACH -- Long Beach State goalie Marwan Darwish secured 15 saves as the third-seeded and sixth-ranked 49ers defeated second-seeded and seventh-ranked Pepperdine in the first semifinal for the 2018 Golden Coast Conference Men's Water Polo Championships on Saturday.

With the win, the 49ers (12-11) advance to Sunday's championship game against the winner of the second semifinal between Pacific and UC Irvine at 1 pm.

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Defense ruled from start to finish as each team posted shutouts in the first and fourth quarters. All the scoring was done in the middle frames and the 49ers had just enough offense to advance over the Waves (15-11), who own goalie John Claude March had 12 saves himself.

The teams combined to hit just 9-for-49 from the field in the game. All nine goals were scored by a different player. It is the second straight GCC tournament game to be decided by a goal.

After the empty first frame, Long Beach State's Austin Stevenson would score just 54 seconds into the second quarter for the 1-0 lead. With 4:39 to play in the half, Mate Toth answered for the Waves to make it 1-1.

They would continue theme of trading goals the rest of the game. The 49ers Keegan Wicken made it 2-1 to close out the first half only to see Pepperdine's Sean Ferrari tie it, 2-2, at the 5:36 mark of the third period. Chandler Kaltenbach gave LBSU the lead right back only to ssee Sam Paur for Pepperdine tie it again 22 seconds later.

Austin Stewart would give LBSU the lead once again with 2:25 to play in the third only to see Pepperdine's Chris Dilworth score a 6-on-5 goal, the only one of the game by both teams, to make it 40-4 with 49 seconds to play.

The 49ers weren't done in the quarter as Theodoros Pateros would score what would be the game winner with just 23 seconds left in the third.

LBSU's defense did the rest to advance them to #ChampionshipSunday.

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