LOS ANGELES – No. 3 Stanford totaled 37 goals in a pair of victories over No. 8 Long Beach State and Concordia to advance to the semifinals of the SoCal Invitational Saturday at Burns Aquatics Center on the campus of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
After earning a 12-7 victory over Long Beach State and a 25-7 win over Concordia, the Cardinal (14-2) advanced to the semifinals of the two-day tournament where it will play No. 2 USC at noon on Sunday at Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool on the campus of Pepperdine University.
After scoring four goals in Stanford's win over Concordia in the Cardinal's first game of the day, senior Bret Bonanni picked up right where he left off. He rattled the cage just over three minutes in to its game against Long Beach State in the afternoon to put Stanford up early.
Stanford added scores from Connor Stapleton and Reid Chase to record the first three goals of the game and took a 4-2 lead into the second quarter.
The Waves scored two of the next three goals to cut Stanford's lead to just one at 5-4 midway through the second quarter, before Stapleton and BJ Churnside each scored a goal in the final 2:17 of the half to give the Cardinal a 7-4 halftime advantage.
Churnside opened the second half with his second goal of the contest as Stanford extended its lead to 8-4.
Stanford held at least a three-goal advantage throughout the remainder of the second half en route to the 12-7 win.
Senior goalie Drew Holland posted six saves in the cage for Stanford.
Earlier on Saturday, the Cardinal recorded its second highest score of the season in the 25-7 victory over Concordia.
Bonanni scored a game-high four goals to lead Stanford.
Stanford also got three goals apiece from junior Kyle Weikert, and redshirt sophomores Justin Roberto and Sam Pfeil in the win. Redshirt junior Adam Abdulhamid (2), junior Connor Stapleton (2) and freshman Marco Stanchi (2) rounded out the Cardinal's multiple goal scorers in the contest.
Concordia struck first with a goal less than two minutes into the game, before Stanford responded with nine-straight scores en route to a 10-2 first-quarter lead. Bonanni scored three times during the nine-goal run.
The Cardinal took a 12-4 lead into halftime, before adding six goals in the third quarter and seven more in the final period.
Sophomore goalie Oliver Lewis posted 10 saves playing the entire game in the cage for the Cardinal.
Saturday marked Stanford's second victory of the season over both Long Beach State and Concordia. The Cardinal previously earned an 11-4 win over the Waves on Sept. 19 and a 20-3 win over the Eagles on Sept. 26.
