LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Cody Smith scored a Stanford season-high six goals in the morning against LMU and a balanced effort in the afternoon against Pacific included BJ Churnside’s 100th career goal, as the No. 2 Cardinal men’s water polo registered a pair of victories on the first day of the SoCal Tournament at Sunset Canyon in Los Angeles, Calif.
The wins, the Cardinal’s seventh and eighth in a row, move its overall record to 14-1 on the year. It’s the program’s best start since winning 19 of its first 20 games in 2009.
Stanford advances to tomorrow’s semifinals at Spieker Aquatics Center and will face the winner of No. 3 California and No. 5 Long Beach State at 12:15 p.m. The Cardinal and Golden Bears met earlier this year at the Kap7 NorCal Classic on Sept. 21, an 11-8 Stanford win. A matchup with Long Beach State would be the Cardinal’s first of the year. The two are scheduled to meet on The Farm on Nov. 1 in MPSF play.
No. 2 Stanford 21 – No. 16 Loyola Marymount 7
Freshman Cody Smith scored a Stanford season-high six goals as a dominant second quarter led to a 21-7 Cardinal victory over No. 16 Loyola Marymount.
Bret Bonanni and Alex Bowen each scored twice in the first, including one power play apiece, and Reid Chase added his first of two goals in the game, but the Lions’ Milutin Mitrovic tallied an early hat trick to keep LMU close after the first eight minutes, 5-3.
In the second, BJ Churnside scored a 6-on-5 goal with 6:36 on the clock and the rout was on. Bonanni backed up his fellow junior with two man-up goals of his own (6:03 and 4:19) and Connor Stapleton scored his first of two at 3:28.
That’s when Smith went to work. He closed out the first half with goals at 2:54, 1:41 and 1:11 to give the Cardinal an 11-3 lead at the break.
Following Mitrovic’s third goal of the first quarter to make the score 5-3 (0:28), LMU wouldn’t again find the back of the cage until there was 2:51 left in the third. By that point, Stanford had scored 10 unanswered and would cruise to victory.
Drew Holland played the first three quarters and made seven saves. Oliver Lewis got the call in the fourth and made one stop.
Smith’s six goals were a career high for the young freshman, surpassing the five he had on the second day of the season against Pomona-Pitzer. Entering the day, Smith, Bonanni, Bowen and Sam Pfeil had all scored five in a game this season.
It was the ninth time Stanford had scored 20 or more in the Cardinal’s first 14 games, something the program had accomplished just 12 times in the previous decade (2004-13) prior to this season.
No. 2 Stanford vs. No. 16 Loyola Marymount
Oct. 11, 2014 • Los Angeles, Calif.
LMU 3 – 0 – 1 – 3 = 7
STAN 5 – 7 – 7 – 2 = 21
LMU Goals: Milutin Mitrovic 4, Jon Beck, Emanuel Di Stasio, Matt Cuozzo
LMU Saves: Kirk Wilenius 4, Dominick Beaudine 3
Stanford Goals: Cody Smith 6, Bret Bonanni 4, Alex Bowen 3, BJ Churnside 3, Reid Chase 2, Connor Stapleton 2, Griffin Bolan
Stanford Saves: Drew Holland 7, Oliver Lewis 1
No. 2 Stanford 12 – No. 7 Pacific 6
Stanford used 10 different scorers to total 12 goals in a 12-6 defeat of No. 7 Pacific in the quarterfinals. Like in the morning against LMU, it was again a dominant second quarter which propelled the Cardinal to victory.
Adam Abdulhamid (3:25) and Nick Hoversten (0:04) got their team on the board in the first, but goals from Tim Reeves (3:10) and Simon Vogel (0:25) for Pacific made things level after one.
Stanford scored four and didn’t surrender one in the second quarter to jump out to a four-goal lead which it would never relinquish. Bret Bonanni opened the frame with his first of two goals in the game at 6:54 and was followed by Abdulhamid tallying his second with a cross-cage shot at 5:29. The pair were the only Cardinal to score multiple times against Pacific.
Conner Cleary added a mark at 3:37 and Cody Smith found the back of the cage from deep at 0:27 to give Stanford a 6-2 lead at intermission.
Bonanni’s second came on a cross-cage rocket at 4:07 in the third on the heels of Pacific’s Ben Stevenson’s 6-on-5 goal (6:52). Connor Stapleton (3:21) and Reid Chase (1:28) added goals to keep Stanford up four, 9-5, after three. The Tigers’ Devon Thumwood scored twice in the period in less than a minute, at 1:58 and 1:00.
In the fourth, Stanford outscored Pacific 3-1 to take the 12-6 result. Alex Bowen (6:40), BJ Churnside (5:57) and Griffin Bolan (2:11) did the work for the Cardinal, while Sean Grady’s score at 6:14 was the Tigers’ only goal.
Churnside’s goal, his fourth of the day, was the 100th of his career. He joins Alex Bowen (220) and Bret Bonanni (218) as active Stanford players in triple digits.
The win was the Cardinal’s 10th this season against a ranked opponent and fourth against one in the top 10.
No. 2 Stanford vs. No. 7 Pacific
Oct. 11, 2014 • Los Angeles, Calif.
PAC 2 – 0 – 3 – 1 = 6
STAN 2 – 4 – 3 – 3 = 12
Pacific Goals: Devon Thumwood 2, Tim Reeves, Simon Vogel, Ben Stevenson, Sean Grady
Stanford Goals: Bret Bonanni 2, Adam Abdulhamid 2, Griffin Bolan, Alex Bowen, Reid Chase, BJ Churnside, Conner Cleary, Nick Hoversten, Cody Smith, Connor Stapleton