Oct. 6, 2007
LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Despite playing a gritty first half which saw the third-ranked Stanford men's water polo team down just 4-2 to top-ranked USC, the Cardinal suffered through a scoreless second half of play that allowed the Trojans to pull away for the 7-2 win Saturday in Los Angeles.
With the loss, the Cardinal record falls to 5-3 overall, and evens their MPSF record at 1-1. Stanford returns to action next Saturday, Oct. 13, at the SoCal Tournament hosted by UC Irvine. The Cardinal will open play against Princeton at 10:40 a.m.
Saturday, Janson Wigo got the Cardinal on the board first with an extra-man goal just 1:07 into the game. The teams then went scoreless for the next five minutes before USC's Tommy Corcoran scored to even things up at 1-1.
The Trojans then used goals from Jordan Thompson and Corcoran to open up a 3-1 lead in the first two minutes of the second period. Stanford answered with Will Hindle-Katel's goal from close range to halve the lead, but USC's Drew Vyn found the back of the net with only 18 seconds to go before halftime to give USC the 4-2 lead at the break.
From there, the Trojan defense took charge, holding the Cardinal without a goal the entire second half. Despite the best efforts of goalkeeper Sandy Hohener, who kept the Cardinal in the game with 11 saves on the day, the Trojans were able to get three scores in the second half, and without an answer from the Cardinal offense, went on to the 7-2 victory.
Stanford - 1 1 0 0 = 2
USC - 1 3 1 2 = 7
SCORING:
Stanford - Hindle-Katel, Wigo
USC - Corcoran 2, Thompson 2, Buckner, Krumpholz, Vyn
SAVES: Hohener (S) 11; Shilling (USC) 10