The No. 3 Trojans entered Saturday’s matchup with No. 5 Stanford on a two-game winning streak. One of those wins included a double overtime victory over the Cardinal on Sept. 24 during the MPSF Invitational placement game.
However, Sunday’s matchup against Stanford saw the Cardinal reign victorious in a 14-13 decision.
Stanford’s leading scorer was senior driver Jackson Painter as the Cardinal improved its record to 10-5 on the season and USC dropped to 10-4. Stanford’s win over USC was the team’s first since 2020.
The Trojans got off to a fast start Saturday and took the first lead of the game after junior 2-Meter Luka Brnetic scored a goal on USC’s first possession. That score was the first of three on the day for Brnetic tying his career high in goals before fouling out of Saturday’s game.
“Luka was shooting a super high percentage, but unfortunately we lost him in the middle of the fourth quarter,” head coach Marko Pintaric said. “In the fourth quarter there were some situations that didn’t go our way and it was questionable how he picked up an ejection.”
Stanford responded with two goals to close out the first quarter, and entered the second period up 2-1. Brnetic scored his second goal of the game with 7:22 left in the second, followed by a score from redshirt junior Joshua Waldoch at the four-minute mark. At the half, USC and Stanford were knotted at three scores apiece. But in the second half, both teams picked it up offensively.
Stanford freshman utility Christopher Arakelian kicked off the second half scoring action with a goal, but the Trojans responded once again as senior driver Tom McGuire fired in a goal off an assist from graduate driver Massimo Di Martire. The Trojans and Cardinal kept going back and forth as the score was then tied at six with 2:03 left in the third quarter.
From there, Stanford began to pull away from USC as the Cardinal scored two goals in the final 34 seconds of the third quarter —one by redshirt sophomore Grant Watson, the other by senior driver Soren Jensen with two seconds left in the period.
Stanford did not let up to begin the fourth as the Cardinal scored two more goals to extend the Trojan deficit. Trailing 10-6, USC picked the offense back up at the 5:21 mark in the fourth quarter when freshman driver Zach Bettino scored a goal. From there, Waldoch and Brnetic both scored to cut Stanford’s lead down to one. The Cardinal were held scoreless for over two minutes during USC’s comeback.
“We tightened up the defense and executed offensively to get back in the game,” Pintaric said. “There were some defensive errors that cost us a couple of goals.”
The Trojans cut Stanford’s lead to one after goals by Brnetic and Joshua Waldoch with less than five minutes left in the game.
Senior driver Carson Kranz came up big for USC inside the final minute of the period, netting two goals. Kranz’s first score on the day came with 42 seconds left to drop Stanford’s lead to one. His second goal came in the last second, tying the game and forcing overtime at 11 goals apiece.
“The team is showing that they have poise in these situations,” Pintaric said. “We sent the game to overtime on a 7 on 6 play that was nicely executed. We are creating opportunities and we are finishing.”
In the first overtime period, Painter opened things up with a goal at the 2:45 mark. Senior 2-Meter Tony Nardelli scored the only goal for the Trojans in the first overtime period to tie the game again. Stanford struck back as freshman utility Alex Gheorghe came up with his second score of the day.
The game entered a second overtime period where the Trojans tied the score at 13 after Waldoch’s third goal of the day. However, USC gave up a penalty shot to Stanford to go up 14-13 and from there, the Trojans could not muster up another score.
USC had seven different players score a goal and four of those seven scored multiple goals. Redshirt freshman goalie Bernardo Herzer had 10 saves — his fourth double-digit save game of the season.
“It’s always good to have multiple players play and feel good about offense,” Pintaric said. “Luka (Brnetic) shot a super high percentage and so did Josh (Waldoch). Those two guys really felt it.”
In addition to the loss against Stanford, the Trojans lost to No. 2 ranked Cal on Sunday and will look to end their losing streak next Saturday at home against UCLA.