Dec. 6, 2008
Stanford Head Coach John Vargas
On the game...
LMU came out and did a great job, a lot of credit to them. I was really proud of how we played. The guys were going for it, and we played great defense and Jimmie [Sandman] did a heck of a job in the goal, obviously. As I told the guys after the game, it doesn't matter if you win in the semifinal by one or twenty, you just have to win to get to the final. We accomplished what we set out to do.
On the game-winning goal...
Janson [Wigo] did a really nice job on his counterattack and on the pass to Jeffrey [Schwimer] for the game-winning goal. It was a great play, and good teams make great plays at the end.
On attacking and battling out the LMU defense...
We were definitely up on the transition almost every time, and we knew that was going to happen. Their goalie got hot, and he was hot at the right time and did a nice job. But it was just a matter of time, we felt.
On facing USC in the national championship game...
They're a big team, and they have a lot of depth. They are a fast team and they have a tremendous amount of pressure on them. It is going to be hard for them and we can go out there and play loose. We just need to beat them once.
The focus is always defense. We have the best goalie in the country, there's no question, and we want to use that to our full advantage. We have great speed so we'll push the counterattack so it is all about ball control. We'll control the tempo of the game with our defense, then control things with our ball control."
Stanford utility Jeffrey Schwimer
On his game-winning goal...
Towards the beginning of the game, when the ball would come in they would just put their hands up and kind of wait for the goalie to help or crash, and we were looking for a kickout instead of trying to finish hard. At the end of the game there Janson gave me a good pass, I grabbed it and threw it high and hard, got it off as quick as I could.
[Stevens] was blocking a lot of stuff low. I got the ball, sighted it and saw an opening over [Stevens'] head so that's where I went.Stanford goalkeeper Jimmie Sandman
On making the final save...
We don't want to give them a shot from the post in the first place, but from the numerous times we've played them they consistently shot low. I think this game they went mid-cage or high, but I wasn't really thinking scouting, I don't think I even had time to react.
LMU Head Coach John Loughran
General thoughts on the game...
"I thought this was a really competitive game and a fun one to watch. Both teams were really playing at a high level and making very few mistakes. We stuck to our gameplan, played great defensively and our goalie was outstanding. There were just a few breaks that didn't go our way and we couldn't go up by two goals. I think if we could have gone up by two goals in the fourth period, we would have had a better opportunity to win that game."
Commenting on his team's defensive strategy...
"That was a real important part of our gameplan. Andy is outstanding and if we can frustrate their shooters with their shots not even getting to the cage, then that would help us out. The Wigo brothers are excellent shooters. Our goal was to get on them and shot-block them 6 on 5- that was a big part of our defensive gameplan. If we shot-block and play 6-5 correctly, we would win the game and we did almost all of that."
On the play of Brian Benedetti...
"Brian Benedetti came in, took two shots and scored two goals. Actually three shots. We did everything right. It was a 30-second timeout and did the play that we've been working on. He was wide open. What a great game for the fans, it was a lot of fun."
LMU 2-meter Brian Benedetti
On Loyola Marymount's final shot attempt...
"That's what we were hoping for. We were trying to get a quick kick-out or quick goal, because there were only 18 seconds left. We got one part done and the other part just didn't go in. I'm probably going to replay it in my head for awhile."
On his contributions offensively...
"When I first went in, everyone was working nice together. I didn't have to do anything, I was just sitting in there and when they passed me the ball I just put it in the goal. It was a great team effort and I wished we could have pulled it out. It just didn't roll our way today."
LMU goalkeeper Andy Stevens
Talking about his team's defense...
"When I was caught out of position, the shot blocker was there. They were there to pick it up for me.