Playoff games are just different.
And in the case of the USC Trojans and the Cal Baptist Lancers, the saying held true. The two teams went at it in a bloodbath on Friday afternoon to see which team would move on to the NCAA semifinals and which team would play its last match together. It ended up being the No. 2-seeded Trojans who took home the hard-fought victory 17-13. However, the score does not tell the story of the match by any means.
The beginning of the match was anything but in USC’s favor. The last time the two played on September 27, the Trojans went up 8-1 in the first period. It was clear that Cal Baptist’s strategy was to suppress an early run from the Trojans, and the Lancers did exactly that. They scored three straight to start the match in the driver’s seat and worry USC fans in the process.
One of the big reasons why the Trojans couldn’t score early was Lancer goalkeeper William Whitstone. The junior had a huge save early on fifth-year driver Carson Kranz before stuffing fifth-year 2-meter Max Miller only minutes later. By halftime, Whitstone already had nine saves on the match. Whitstone finished with 13 saves and had the help of the crossbar at numerous different points in the game as well.
Since they were down three goals, the Trojans had much work to do to come back and tie it up.
It started with about a minute left in the first period: the Trojans were a man-up when USC junior driver Jack Vort had an open shot and scored his 17th goal of the season. Miller then put home a rebound after a missile of a shot clanked off the post and popped out to him to bring USC within one. Vort struck a second time on a give-and-go, which left him in front of a wide-open cage to tie up the game with USC’s third straight goal.
The two teams then proceeded to trade heavy blows across the first half’s final minutes. Any time one side went up, the other would respond on the other side of the pool.
Cal Baptist’s junior Logan Puhl struck first, putting a five-meter penalty shot past redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Bernardo Herzer. On the other side of the pool, sophomore driver Robert López Duart made no mistake on his own penalty shot, responding to put the score at 4-4.
After another goal from the Lancers, Kranz made it look easy and scored to tie the game back up at five. Shortly after, Whitstone made another great save on Miller, but Kranz found the rebound that popped out on the other side of the cage to give the Trojans their first lead of the match, 6-5.
It looked like the second half would continue similar to the bloodbath that was the first half. However, the Trojans found a comfortable lead after a quick series of three goals within 75 seconds of each other.
The Lancers did come back, though, with a goal from graduate Caleb Teraoka to put the game within one score.
On the next possession, Miller got an entry pass, which led to an easy goal to put the Trojans back up by two. Miller was a beast on both sides of the ball this game. In the following possession, he blocked a shot and fed it up the pool to Kranz, who drew another five-meter. López Duart swam up to the line and scored his second of the match to put USC up 9-6.
Redshirt junior 2-meter Jack Martin then found two goals of his own, both inside the two-meter line. The former Stanford Cardinal has found a groove in this postseason as one of the top scorers for the team. He had eight goals against the Austin College Kangaroos in the first round of the MPSF Tournament a few weeks ago, which is tied for the second most in a game in USC history. With another goal coming later in this matchup, Martin finished with a hat trick, now moving his postseason total to 14.
The Lancers were doing anything they could to stay in the matchup. With a goal from Puhl and junior Toring Stanley, they continuously responded to keep the game close. They were not given any chances to get back in the game, as USC kept its foot on the accelerator.
To put the Trojans back on the board, López Duart fired a shot right off a restart that picked the top right corner to move the Trojans up 12-8. The Lancers scored as their man advantage was expiring, but López Duart scored his fourth goal of the night shortly after to keep the four-goal lead that Cal Baptist couldn’t overcome. Kranz scored his fourth goal a few minutes later on a five-meter attempt, which was the dagger that USC needed to put away the Lancers.
The fourth frame was much more tame than the previous three, with no goals finding the net until nearly three minutes into the period. Vort scored his third goal of the match to put USC up four again before charging back down the pool and feeding Miller, who scored his third of the game, to put the Trojans up by five goals. The Lancers would find the net one more time, but the deficit was way too much to overcome by that point.
USC will now face Fordham at 4 p.m. on Saturday in the semifinal match to see who will play either UCLA or Stanford in the finals.