Bobcats to play for third place

The Saddleback men's water polo team split two games at the Orange Empire Conference Tournament on Thursday at Orange Coast College.  The Bobcats will play for third place on Saturday.

Saddleback opened with a dominating win over a Fullerton team that entered with just two wins for the season.  The Bobcats had their second highest scoring output of the season in beating the Hornets 25-10.  Morgan Lee (pictured) led Saddleback with six goals in the game while Callum Murphy followed with five goals of his own.

Saddleback then headed to the semifinals and took on an Orange Coast program ranked No. 4 in the state and a team that had beaten the Bobcats soundly in conference play back in early October.  Saddleback got off to a rough start when Orange Coast scored the first three goals of the game in the opening four minutes before responding with two of their own in falling behind 4-2 after the opening quarter.  Orange Coast would eventually widen the lead, outpacing the Bobcats for a 13-5 win.

Saddleback is now 21-14 overall and 4-3 in Orange Empire Conference play.  The Bobcats will play Cypress College in the third-place game on Saturday at OCC at 11:10 AM.  Cypress advanced to the third-place game with a win against Riverside City (21-11) and a loss to Golden West (5-17).