Sept. 15, 2007
STANFORD, Calif. - The No. 4 Stanford men's water polo team continued their winning ways Saturday, capturing a pair of wins to start play at the NorCal Open hosted by California. Playing in bracket D at Miramonte High School in Moraga, the Cardinal opened up with a 14-9 win over MPSF rival Pacific before concluding the day's action with an 11-9 overtime win over UC Irvine to reach Sunday's semifinals.
Janson Wigo paced the Cardinal in the morning, scoring four goals to lead the attack as Stanford overwhelmed Pacific with six goals in each of the first two quarters. The onslaught, combined with a strong defensive effort, led to a 12-5 halftime lead that proved too much for the Tigers to overcome. Despite scoring only two more goals the rest of the way, the Cardinal were buoyed by the play of the defense, as goalkeepers Sandy Hohener and Brian Pingree combined to make five saves in the contest.
Michael Bury and Will Hindle-Katel each scored twice in the win, while Chris Jacobson, Alex Pulido, Forrest Schwartz, Will Smith, Drac Wigo, and Sage Wright all added single tallies. Dragan Bakic and Duje Kaurloto led the Tigers with two goals apiece.
In the afternoon contest, with a semifinal berth on the line, the Cardinal needed overtime to deal defeat to another MPSF rival, No. 5 UC Irvine. The tightly-contested affair saw the Cardinal clinging to a 5-4 lead at halftime, then the Anteaters surging to tie things up at 7-7 heading into the final period. Both teams scored twice in the fourth period, leading to two periods of overtime, which saw the Cardinal defense come up big once more, shutting out the Anteaters and giving the offense the chance to score twice to capture the victory.
Janson Wigo led the Cardinal in scoring once more, netting a hat trick with three goals, as Andrew Drake, Drac Wigo, and Wright all added a pair apiece. Will Hindle-Katel and Alex Pulido added goals as well as Sandy Hohener made three saves in the win.
UC Irvine got five goals from Tim Hutten to pace the squad, with single tallies from Cole Bitter, Andrew Dunn, Brandon Johnson, and Colin Mello.
The fourth-ranked Cardinal now advance to the semifinals of the NorCal Open, set to face top-ranked USC at 10:40 a.m. Sunday morning at the Spieker Aquatics Center on the campus of California.
Game 1
Stanford 6 6 2 0 = 14
Pacific 1 4 1 3 = 9
Stanford Goal Scorers: J. Wigo 4, Bury 2, Hindle-Katel 2, Jacobson, Pulido, Schwartz, Smith, D. Wigo, Wright
Pacific Goal Scorers: Bakic 2, Kaurloto 2, Bartlett, Mahoney, Pare, Struempf, Yamamoto
Goalie Saves: Hohener 1 (S), Pingree 4 (S); Andrus 8 (UOP)
Game 2
Stanford 2 3 2 2 0 2 = 11
UC Irvine 1 3 3 2 0 0 = 9
Stanford Goal Scorers: J. Wigo 3, Drake 2, D. Wigo 2, Sage Wright 2, Hindle-Katel, Pulido
UC Irvine Goal Scorers: Hutten 5, Bitter, Dunn, Johnson, Mello
Goalie Saves: Hohener 3 (S); Garcia 1 (UCI)