The Bears defeated the Trojans 14-10 for their second triumph over the Trojans this season. California’s earlier victory came in the form of an 11-10 contest in the MSPF Tournament.
Three-time Newcomer of the Week Award-winner graduate driver Massimo Di Martire scored three goals, swiped three balls and recorded one assist. Di Martire leads USC and the MPSF with 42 goals this season. Junior driver Carson Kranz and redshirt senior driver Ashworth Molthen also scored twice.
Junior goalie Adrian Weinberg and the Bears’ defense successfully pinned down redshirt 2-meter Jake Erhardt and senior driver Marcus Longton, two of the Trojans’ top scorers. Erhardt went 0-4, and Longton scored just once in eight attempts.
The Bears opened the match with a 3-0 run before Di Martire scored the first goal for USC at the 1:20 mark in the first.
“The early deficit really put us into a bind,” head coach Mike Pintaric said.
Cal led USC 5-1 before the Trojans cut into the deficit with consecutive strikes from Di Martire and Kranz. At the end of the half, the score was 6-4 in favor of the Bears.
In the third, the Bears scored back-to-back goals. Molthen answered by receiving a pass from sophomore two-meter Luka Brnetic and firing a shot past Weinberg. Kranz followed up with a power-play goal to make the score 8-6.
The fourth quarter saw Erhardt receive a third exclusion early on, eliminating him for the rest of the match. Sophomore attacker Roberto Valera notched his third smash of the game, giving Cal a 10-6 lead.
The momentum quickly shifted after a key block by freshman utility Andrej Grgurevic allowed Longton to score his first goal before two-meter junior Max Miller earned an exclusion. Miller passed to Di Martire, who flushed his third smash of the game.
The Trojan bench erupted when Brnetic capitalized on a missed shot by Cal and recorded his first goal of the game, bringing the tally to 11-10 in favor of the Bears.
Cal called a timeout to restore order, and they proceeded to bypass the Trojan’s defense.
On a penalty shot, sophomore attacker Max Casabella rifled the ball past graduate goalie Kyle McKenny. Grgurevic tried to counter, but the Bears blocked the Australian’s shot, allowing senior utility Marko Valecic to extend the Bears’ lead to three.
After Longton missed the Bears’ goal for his eighth attempt of the game, Casabella struck again, heaving a long toss to score on an empty goal.
The 3-0 run gave the game a final score of 14-10. Two of the three goals came from sophomore attacker Max Casabella, who led all scorers with four strikes.
“We kept the game close,” Pintaric said, “But we faltered again on defense. We allowed [the Bears’] center to get too close to the goal and score.”
The Trojans will travel down to Malibu to face No. 10 Pepperdine on Saturday.
“We faced Pepperdine over the summer, and we did pretty well against them,” Pintaric said. “This time, our approach will be similar to our approach with Cal. We need to prevent natural goals. Tightening up our defense will allow us to make the plays necessary to win.”