After a long season during which they were strong favorites in their conference the entire time, the Cal State Long Beach 49ers met expectations, and perhaps exceeded them, in beating Santa Barbara City College 47-17 to win the Gold Coast Conference final Sunday.

Photos by Kirby Winslow

With the victory, CSULB enters the national DIAA quarterfinals, and is slated to play UC Davis - convincing victors over Chico State Sunday - at Davis in two weeks.

The final itself was weird, in that it saw both teams get three yellow cards. The three received by Long Beach State were given during the same attacking sequence, and for over five minutes the 49ers were down to 12 men. 

Long Beach ran out to a 30-0 lead at halftime, with Santa Barbara hurt by some defensive breakdowns and two yellow cards.

“We did not play well yesterday against Fullerton,” said CSULB Coach Jason Reynolds. “We let two tries in early and it was 14-12. We weren’t executing well, and going into the game against Santa Barbara I was worried - they had played well against a tough San Diego team.”

But Long Beach started strong and showed the hunger they’ve shown all season in trying to get back to the national playoffs.

“As long as they’re confident and strong with the basics, they will do well,” said Reynolds. “There’s no secret with the way we play; we just need to execute.”

SBCC’s strength is in the pace of their game and their ability to move the ball wide quickly. 

But wings James Antony and Devon Stone shut the SBCC wide attack down well, and the 49ers kept it together even when down to 12 men.

“We only gave up one try when we were down three players,” said Reynolds. “I’ve got to hand it to our captain, Martin Sanchez, for keeping the guys focused even when we were down.”

Long Beach State has run the table in the Gold Coast, and in the end it has not been close. In winning all eight of their regular-season and playoff games, the 49ers scored an average of 64 points and allowed fewer than six per game. The defensive average was bumped up a bit by the 29 points they gave up this weekend, but still they have dominated, and now look to keep it rolling into the national playoffs.