LOS ANGELES – The No. 2 Cardinal completed a Los Angeles weekend sweep this afternoon, topping No. 3 USC 16-12 one day after taking down No. 1 UCLA. The win puts Stanford at 12-1 on the season and 2-0 in MPSF play. Stanford’s 16 goals came from eight different players, including six multi-goal scorers.
The Cardinal defense was lights-out to start the game, holding the Trojans scoreless in the first period. USC’s first goal didn’t come until there was 6:18 left in the second, at which point the Card had built up a 6-0 lead. Will Schneider led the way with two first-period goals.
USC battled back into the game in the second, outscoring Stanford 7-3 to make it a 9-7 Card lead at halftime.
The two sides traded blows in the third, but James Rozolis-Hill’s second goal of the day came with under a minute to go and pushed the lead to three at 14-11. Ben Forer picked up his third goal of the day in the period, leading all scorers and chipping in an assist as well.
The score held through a slow start to the fourth, but Alex Gheorghe’s second goal of the game came with 5:11 to go and made it 15-11. Rozolis-Hill completed his hat trick two minutes later, scoring with 3:06 to go to make it 16-11.
USC added a goal with 2:41 remaining to make it 16-12, which would end up being the final score of the game.
Stanford finishes the weekend with a road sweep of No. 1 UCLA and No. 3 USC in Los Angeles for the second time in the last three seasons. The Card is now 3-1 against the two MPSF foes this season, beating USC and losing to UCLA at Avery two weeks ago in games that did not count towards MPSF standings.
The Cardinal is at home next weekend, hosting No. 18 Santa Clara on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. PT. Tickets are available at Tickets.GoStanford.com, and the game can be streamed on Overnght.
Stanford Goals: J. Rozolis-Hill (3), B. Forer (3), A. Gheorghe (2), C. Ohl (2), K. Mathiopoulos (2), W. Schneider (2), R. Ohl, D. Chatzis,