Golden West Wins OEC Title

The 2012 Orange Empire Conference Championships were held at Cypress College. After the six teams faced off, it was Golden West who finished at the top of the conference for their 24th consecutive conference title.

The Rustlers (23-0 Overall, 5-0 OEC) finished their regular season undefeated going into the conference tournament. Golden West earned a bye for the first round of the conference playoffs and faced Santa Ana in the OEC Semi-Final game. The Rustlers would quickly go to work on Santa Ana building an eight goal lead early in the game and never let up, defeating the Don's 15-6. In the Championship game, the Rustlers matched up against the No. 2 team in the south, Riverside. Once again, Golden West proven destine to win their 42nd conference championship jumped out early in the first period on the Tigers, 4-0, and built on that lead the next three periods to be crowned Orange Empire Conference Champions in a 14-6 victory over Riverside. With the win, the Rustlers take the number one seed into the Southern California Regional Playoffs.

Riverside City College (17-10 Overall, 4-1 OEC) finished second in the OEC, defeating Orange Coast 12-10 in the semifinal game, and fell to the Rustlers in the conference championship game. The Tiger's second place finish in the conference tournament, also secured themselves as the number two seed going into the Southern California Regional Playoffs.

Third place game went to Orange Coast College (11-4 Overall, 3-2 OEC) after defeating Santa Ana 11-9. The Pirates would end up with the number ten seed for the Southern California Regional Playoffs. Fourth place, Santa Ana (17-10 Overall, 2-4 OEC) started strong with four consecutive wins at the Citrus Tournament, and went three-for-three at the Mt. SAC tournament, fell to the Pirates in their final game of the season.

Fullerton (10-16 Overall, 1-5 OEC) defeated Saddleback (1-18 Overall, 0-4 OEC) in the fifth place game, 10-9.