Dec. 4, 2005
Lewisburg, PA - The Stanford Cardinal played a strong match against the No. 1 ranked USC Trojans in the final round of the NCAA Championship at Bucknell University's Kinney Natatorium in Lewisburg, PA. But the Cardinal came up short against USC in an intense 3-2 heartbreaker.
Stanford jumped off to a good start after graduating senior, Peter Varellas, won the first sprint of the game. But the match proved to be extremely physical, and when Stanford's Ryan Fortune was called on the third ejection of the game, USC capitalized on the 6-on-5 advantage. Juan Delgadillo scored the first goal of the match for the Trojans off of an assist by MPSF Player of the Year Juraj Zatovic at 3:27 in the first period. Stanford's timeout after the first Trojan goal lit a fire under the Cardinal, because they came out smoking. Only 12 seconds back into play, senior Peter Varellas scored Stanford's first goal on a 6-on-5 attempt to end the first period tied up, 1-1.
USC came out in the second period running. Juan Delgadillo won the sprint, and after a Trojan timeout one second into the quarter, USC's Ted Zepfel scored the only goal of the period off of a Delgadillo assist just 21 seconds in. Both teams failed on two 6-on-5 attempts in the remainder of the second period, and closed the first half with the Trojans leading, 2-1.
The third period showed enormous defensive efforts by both teams. USC won the sprint, and suffered two ejections that Stanford could not capitalize on in the first three minutes of the quarter. USC failed on a 6-on-5 advantage with 1:32 remaining in the period, and the quarter finished scoreless for both teams. The Cardinal and the Trojans headed into the final quarter with a USC advantage, 2-1.
The last period proved to be a very tense match-up. USC won the sprint, but Stanford got the ball back and 58 seconds into the quarter, Stanford's Michael Bury scored a goal off of Ryan Fortune's assist to tie up the game, 2-2. USC failed to capitalize on a man up attempt at 5:20, but when Stanford's Forrest Schwartz was ejected at 3:35 in the fourth, Pavol Valovic scored what would be the Championship winning goal for the Trojans with 3:10 remaining in the match. Both teams had one more 6-on-5 opportunity before time ran out and the Trojans took home the National Championship in a highly defensive 3-2 victory.
Stanford finished the season with a 20-7 record, while USC ended up 26-1 on a 19-game winning streak. Goalies Sandy Hohener for Stanford and USC's Adam Schilling played tremendously in the net on Sunday, with 11 and 9 saves, respectively. Hohener finished the season with an impressive 171 saves in 21 games for the Cardinal.
Peter Varellas and Thomas Hopkins were named to the NCAA All-Tournament first team. Sandy Hohener, Will Hindle-Katel and J.J. Garton were named second team all-tournament.
"It was a great defensive game," said Stanford head coach John Vargas. "I couldn't be more proud of how we played. We had our matchups and had the right people on the right guys. We played great team defense, and Sandy Hohener (goalkeeper) had a great game. We played like we wanted to play in terms of controlling the game. USC did a great job on man-down defense."
Third-Place Match: Third-seeded LMU finished the season in third-place for the fourth time in five year after defeating St. Francis (N.Y.), 10-6, in the NCAA Consolation match.
Junior Cutberto Hernandez led the Lions with three goals on the day while fellow junior Brian McShane added a pair. Senior Endre Rex-Kiss also added two goals. LMU finished the season at 19-16, St. Francis ended with a 20-7 record.
Stanford in the NCAA Tournament: This was Stanford's 19th appearance in the final match of the NCAA Championship tournament in 30 years, and the Cardinal have now placed in the top three teams in the nation 24 of the last 30 seasons. Head coach John Vargas has led his team to the title match of the NCAA tournament in each of his four years as head coach for Stanford so far. He led the team to an impressive 20-7 record this season.
Stanford Seniors In Post-Season: Graduating seniors Thomas Hopkins, Marcello Pantuliano, and Peter Varellas finished their collegiate careers with tremendous showings in their post-season appearances. Marcello Pantuliano scored two goals against LMU and Peter Varellas scored one to help Stanford advance to the Championship game. Peter Varellas scored one of the two Stanford goals in the final match today against USC. In the MPSF tournament, Varellas also scored an amazing five goals in the first round against Pepperdine. Varellas (4), Hopkins (2), and Pantuliano (1) each scored in the MPSF semifinals to defeat UC Irvine and advance to the finals where Thomas Hopkins scored a tremendous four goals and Varellas added another goal against USC in the final match of the MPSF tournament where Stanford took second place.
Pantuliano finished his season with 13 goals, and a total of 20 goals in his collegiate career. Hopkins finished the 2005 season with 48 goals, which he adds to his previous 131 goals for a total of 179 goals for Stanford over his four years. Varellas capped off his senior season as Stanford's lead scorer with 62 goals, and 168 total goals for the Cardinal in four years.
2005 Stanford Stats:
Stanford Scoring
Peter Varellas 62
Thomas Hopkins 48
William Hindle-Katel 37
Michael Bury 27
J.J. Garton 16
Tyler Drake 13
Marcello Pantuliano 13
Ryan Fortune 10
Forrest Schwartz 7
Andrew Drake 5
Chris Jacobson 5
Peter Finlayson 2
Steven Wright 1
Michael McCaffery 1
Stanford 245
Opponents 165
Goalie Saves (Games/Games Started) Saves, Goals Allowed
Sandy Hohener (22/22) 171 saves, 135 GA
Beau Stockstill (6/2) 20 saves, 11 GA
James Sandman (7/3) 26 saves, 16 GA
David Carlson (2/0) 4 saves, 2 GA
Stanford (3) 220 saves, 165 GA
Opponents (3) 180 saves, 245 GA
Game Summary
Dec. 4, 2005
NCAA Finals
Stanford Scoring: Bury 1, Varellas 1.
USC Scorers: Delgadillo 1, Valovic 1, Zepfel 1.
Goalie Saves: , Hohener (Stan) 11, Schilling (USC) 9.