Slow Start Costly to Cardinal vs. Santa Clara
Stanford, Ca. – Friday January 24
Stanford came out eager to build on an encouraging pre season victory over the University of San Diego. It was the visitors, though, that made the early running, setting a tempo that Stanford struggled to cope with early on. It took 10 minutes to break the home resistance from a driving lineout as two missed tackles on the fringe allowed the first try of the game. With the momentum heavily in Santa Clara’s favor they capitalized on 25 minutes with a smart offload through the middle of an unorganized Stanford defense for the second try. This sparked a blitz of 3 tries in 5 minutes as the visitors asserted their authority in the game. Weak tackling around the fringes led to the third try whilst the fourth came from a wide move from a scrum on Stanford’s 22m. At 0-24 Stanford were failing to get a foothold in the game until a barreling run from 22m out by centre George Fullerton gave them some hope with 5 minutes left in the half as they headed to half time at 5-24.
Despite the one sided nature of the first 30 minutes of the contest, Stanford clearly came out in the 2nd half determined to make a mark in the game. The second period developed into a much more even physical contest as both sides fought to gain vital field position. The only scores came courtesy of pick and go from the base of a 5m scrum by Santa Clara and a Sam Falkenhagen try for Stanford after a smartly taken tap penalty from scrum half Alejandro Sanchez.
Whilst ultimately a disappointing result, Stanford can take heart from the way they were able to rally from a tough start against a team from the league above to recover from 0-24 to a final score of 14-29.
Team
1. Brown 2. Bailey 3. Quigley 4. Carey 5. Herries 6. Ripert 7. Kim
8. Agness (Captain) 9. A Sanchez 10. Liljenquist 11. Greiner
12. N. Sanchez 13. Fullerton 14. Abundes 15. Falkenhagen
16. Long 17. Omegara 18. Perkins 19. Barron 20. Houghton-Berry
21. Le Roux 22. Lexmond 23. Sebastian
Next up
Stanford at UC Santa Cruz* at 1pm on Saturday 2/1
Stanford vs. Oregon State at 12pm on Sunday 2/2
*Conference Match
Stanford JVs 34-0 Santa Clara JVs
The Varsity team were followed by a JV side eager to impress in the wake of the disappointing loss. Their intention was clear from the outset as they pinned Santa Clara deep into their own territory for long spells. The home side remained patient and 10 minutes into the game good defensive pressure forced the opposition to concede the ball on their own 22m. The pressure from Gavin Avery and Nick Perkins allowed Pascal Odek to benefit from the turnover in possession as he shook off two weak tackles to touch down under the posts for an early Stanford lead.
Stanford then repeated the trick of turning defense into attack as they constructed a flowing movement that ended with 13 Chris supplying the final pass to Oscar Sandovel to carry 2 defenders across the line for the score. It started back on the half way line as14 McColl pounced to break up a Santa Clara attack. After securing possession on the left wing, Drew Lexmond was quick to play to the space wide, and quick hands by Rory Houghton-Berry allowed Odek to continue his bright start to the game. Odek left defenders in his wake as he gained 40m up the right touchline. A further surge by Patrick Quigley took Stanford deep into the Santa Clara 22m, allowing Sandovel to secure 5 points on the next phase.
Stanford extended the lead just before half time as a well worked set play from a midfield scrum once again provided the platform for Odek to showcase his threat with another impressive finish. Lexmond added 2 points with the kick to go with his earlier conversion and penalty for a 22-0 Cardinal lead going into half time.
The 2nd half quickly took on a familiar feel. Once again Stanford defensive pressure after a strong Sandoval tackle led to Odek stealing the ball and committing 5 more Santa Clara defenders to finally drag him down after a powerful burst down the middle. With the Santa Clara defense struggling for numbers as they retreated, Stanford moved the ball wide only for Ian McColl to be stopped 5m short of the line. The offense remained patient, however, and their composure and ball control saw its reward as 4 phases later Zach Long lunged over from short range. McColl was to be denied again with 7 minutes left, this time by the referee who ruled that he hadn’t controlled the ball as he chased down a clever Alex Le Roux kick as it bounced over the Santa Clara tryline. The Cardinal forwards then took control from a 5m scrum and openside flanker Adam Halper struck with a short range pick and go effort.
At 34-0 and the win comfortable secured the home side, bolstered by a number of late replacements, showed their defensive resilience with a courageous tryline line stand to cap the result with an impressive shut out on the scoreboard.
Team:
1 Perkins 2 Long 3 Omegara 4 Perkins 5 Avery 6 Chabolla 7 Halper 9 Houghton-Berry (Cap) 9 Le Roux 10 Lexmond 11 Odek 12 Sandovel 13 Sebastian 14 McColl 15 Weiss
Subs: 16 Williams 17 Dimitrijevic 18 Joyner 19 Gomez 20 Chen 21 Nelsen 22 Liu 23 Kipyator
Score times
12 mins Pascal TRY
12 mins Lexmond Conversion
20 mins Lexmond Penalty
31 mins Sandovel TRY
39 mins Pascal TRY
39 mins Lexmond Conversion
58 mins Long TRY
58 mins Lexmond Conversion
73 mins Halper TRY