LOS ANGELES — The No. 14 UC Santa Barbara Men’s Water Polo team’s trip to Los Angeles had stars aplenty and blockbuster drama on Saturday, everything you would expect from a visit to the City of Angels.

The Gauchos nearly overcame a slow start against the day’s hosts, No. 1 UCLA, in the morning game but fell, 13-9. Unfazed, Santa Barbara bounced back with a come-from-behind win over No. 15 LMU in the afternoon action, defeating the Lions by a 13-12 scoreline.

Reigning Big West Player of the Week Luigi Canepa continued to flex his star power with a goal and three assists against the top-ranked Bruins and six goals against the Lions, while Landon Lassahn provided the late winner as part of hat trick in the afternoon tangle with LMU.

UCLA 13, UCSB 9

The reigning national champion Bruins showed why they are the no. 1 team in the country in the first quarter of Saturday’s action, taking a 5-0 lead after the first eight minutes of action.
 
Two of the Gauchos’ young guns, Dash D’Ambrosia and Sloan Brown, started their team’s climb back in the second quarter, with Canepa chipping in his usual heroics for Santa Barbara’s third goal of the game.

The Gauchos trailed, 9-3, at halftime but would continue to fight. The defense buckled down in the second half, holding UCLA to just two goals in each of the third and fourth quarters, and a late offensive outburst threatened to make things interesting at the end.
 
Charlie Johnson and Camren Simoncelli were on the scoresheet as each team tallied a pair in the third, but the Bruins had ballooned their lead to 13-5 with four and a half minutes left in the game. But then Brown converted a five-meter penalty, center Kai Ross fired home less than a minute after that and Santa Barbara’s own Sean O’Brien scored about 30 seconds later to make it 13-8 with just under three minutes to play.

Ultimately, the Gauchos could not keep up the frantic pace they would have needed, but Johnson did fire home the team’s ninth goal late on.

UCSB 13, LMU 12

It was a physical battle between the Gauchos and Lions in the afternoon, with 15 of the game’s 25 combined goals coming on a powerplay or penalty shot. Six of those were in the first quarter, when all three of Santa Barbara’s tallies — one from Lassahn and two from Canepa — came with the Gauchos up a man due to an LMU exclusion foul.

The Lions also scored three extra-man goals in the first and added two natural scores to lead, 5-3, at the first horn. The second quarter was lower-scoring and saw LMU build its advantage, scoring three times to the Gauchos’ two — one from Finn Genc and the other from Oliver Sherwood.
 
But Santa Barbara turned things around in a big way after halftime. Wyatt Pieretti and the Gauchos’ defense shut out the Lions for the entire third quarter, while the offense turned the 8-5 halftime deficit into a 9-8 lead for the final frame.

Canepa converted two penalty shots, while Tyler Roller and Camren Simoncelli each chipped in. That comeback effort set up a see-saw fourth quarter, which started with LMU retaking the lead. Canepa answered with two more goals for the Gauchos, putting Santa Barbara back in front, 11-10.

An LMU penalty shot tied it, Lassahn un-tied it, then the Lions leveled things again with 1:39 left on the clock. After what would have been a go-ahead LMU goal was called off for an offensive foul, the Gauchos went the other way and Lassahn fired home the game-winning goal with 37 seconds left on the clock.

Santa Barbara will head north next weekend, taking part in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Invitational, hosted by Stanford. Santa Barbara will play four matches over three days in Palo Alto, with their Friday matchup and ensuing bracket to be announced early next week.