STANFORD, Calif. – The atmosphere was electric. The match was tense. It was Big Splash 2024 between No. 2 Stanford and No. 7 California. With the teams both taking a win against the other this season, the third matchup of the regular season featured a lot of firepower. In the end, Stanford pulled away in the second half and held on for a 16-11 win on its Senior Night.
The first quarter was about as back-and-forth as it could get. Both teams scored four times, with four different Stanford scorers finding the back of the net. Will Schneider scored halfway through the quarter to give Stanford a 3-1 lead before California rallied back to tie it just one minute later.
Stanford began to pull away in the second quarter thanks to a CJ Indart goal and an Ethan Parrish score to make it 9-6, the lead the Card would take into the break.
The third quarter opened with a spectacular goal from Alex Gheorghe, his first of two highlight-caliber goals. He went behind-the-back and over-the-shoulder to give Stanford a 10-7 lead, which got extended to 14-8 on Schneider’s second goal of the night in the waning seconds of the third quarter.
Gheorghe put the game on ice in the fourth quarter after California had closed the gap to 14-11, with yet another over-the-shoulder goal through a lot of traffic. Botond Balogh scored the game’s final goal with seven seconds remaining, much to the delight of the home crowd at Avery.
Six different Card scored at exactly two goals, the third time this season that Stanford has had six multi-goal scorers. West Temkin picked up nine saves, with a lot of those coming early in the game when the Golden Bears had golden scoring chances.
The Cardinal ends the regular season at 19-3 overall and 4-2 in MPSF play. Next weekend, Stanford heads south for the conference tournament hosted by UCLA. The Card enters as the No. 3 seed in the bracket, and will square off with Penn State-Behrend on Friday.
No. 2 Stanford vs. No. 7 California
CAL 4 – 2 – 3 – 2 = 11
STAN 4 – 5 – 5 – 2 = 16
STAN Goals: D. McFarland (2), R. Pittman (2), A. Gheorghe (2), B. Balogh (2), J. Painter (2), W. Schneider (2), C. McFarland, CJ Indart, E. Parrish, S. Jensen
CAL Goals: M. Szatmary (3), J. Howerton (2), W. Mundelius, A. Ponferrada, M. Casabella, A. Oprea, N. Mirkovic, G. Avakian