SSU Defeats Stanford 13-4

The Sonoma State Seawolves defeated the Stanford Cardinal on Saturday, February 7th at Johnson Field in Palo Alto, California by a score of 13 to 4. The Seawolves are now 2-0 on the season and 1-0 in WCLL play. 

A number of players had noteworthy performances, including senior Benen Powers (5G, 3A), senior Nick Frangione (4G, 1A), senior Dylan Hardy (6GB, 5CTO), junior Riley Corcoran (9 saves, 81% save percentage), and junior Giancarlo Ghailian (3GB, 3CTO). 

In the first, the Seawolf offense got going early when senior Mason Colaizzi found Nick Frangione cutting through the heart of the Stanford defense to score the first goal of the contest. Freshman Ryan McLaughlin scored his first career point finding Benen Powers in front of the cage for an easy finish. The Seawolf offense would go on to score 5 goals in the first six minutes, led by Frangione who secured a hat trick midway through the first. At the end of the first quarter, the Seawolves led 5-0. 

In the second quarter, attackman Benen Powers scored 3 of his 5 goals on the day on a combination of crafty play inside and pinpoint feeds from his teammates. Stanford was able to generate their first goal of the day on a fast break,

leaving the score 8-1 at half, in favor of the Seawolves. This marks the second straight week the Seawolf defense has held their opponent to just one goal in the first half. 

In the third, it was Powers again setting the table for sophomore Matt McCurdy on a nice cut inside for an easy finish on the crease. Powers would continue his hot streak by finding Colaizzi on the doorstep for the game's next goal to make it 11-2. Colaizzi then found sophomore midfielder Jackson Garcia for a well placed shot off-stick to take a 12-2 lead. 

In the fourth, Powers had the shot of the day, blazing a step-down shot into the top left corner for the final goal of the game for Sonoma. Junior close defender Giancarlo Ghalian, who earned a starting role to begin the season, had a strong showing, causing three turnovers and scooping up three ground balls. Senior captain Dylan Hardy continued his strong start to his season, leading the defense with five caused turnovers combined with six ground balls. 

The Noma defense held Stanford to just 23 total shots throughout the course of the contest, with many of those shots coming from outside 15 yards. This helped junior goalkeeper Riley Corcoran continue his stellar start to the season, with a very impressive save percentage of over 80% in each of the first two games.  When the final whistle blew, the Seawolves held a 13-4 advantage. 

This weekend, the Seawolves will be taking a trip to Southern California to take on the University of Arizona (Sunday, 2/15 at 1pm, @ Allyson Felix Field, formerly known as Cromwell Field) and USC (Monday, 2/16 at 12pm, @ St. Francis High School). Go Seawolves!