Sept. 18, 2005
Irvine, Calif. - Stanford suffered its first loss of the season in the championship round of the SoCal Tournament to the undefeated Trojans, 6-5.
The first half showed an even match up between the two teams with one goal apiece in the first two quarters, leaving the score tied at 2-2. Stanford took the lead after the third with a 3-2 scoring run. USC tied the game at 5-5 on an extra-man goal with 6:25 remaining in the final period before Juan Delgadillo scored the game winning goal for the Trojans with 3:37 left in the fourth.
Stanford's Peter Varellas had two goals on the match while William Hindle-Katel, Thomas Hopkins, and Michael Bury each had one goal. Sandy Hohener made fives saves at goal to cap off his 28 total saves in the tournament. Hopkins finished the tournament as Stanford's leading scorer with 11 total goals, Varellas closesly followed with nine goals total.
Last year's Southern California Tournament posted a very similar fate for the Cardinal. In the title game, USC out-scored Stanford 8-6 to hand the Cardinal the first loss of the season. The next week, Stanford went on to beat the Trojans, 9-8, and then again in the MPSF Championship tournament, 8-5.
Stanford returns home to take on the #12 University of Pacific(7-3) on Thursday, September 29 at 7:00pm. The Pacific Tigers finished 9th in the SoCal Tournament this weekend.