Cal Takes Colorado To The Wire Before Falling, 12-10

BERKELEY – Cal hung with Colorado into the game's final minutes with the contest tied before Charlie Rudy (5:23) and Ashley Stokes (2:24) scored a pair of late unassisted goals to help the Buffaloes escape with a 12-10 victory over the Golden Bears on Sunday at California Memorial Stadium. Maya Lawliss led Cal with four goals while Amanda Morse notched three as both equaled career highs. Lawliss has 11 goals in Cal's last three games while Morse has tallied eight times in the last four contests.

"Our sophomores are stepping up huge," head coach Brooke Eubanks said. "We have had to use the last three months as our off season training, and it's exciting to see things coming together for individuals and the team."

The game was tied 4-4 at halftime before Lawliss scored the first goal of the second half with 28:39 remaining on an assist from Sophia Cerino to give the Bears a 5-4 advantage. Colorado's Liz Phillips tied the score at 5-5 with an unassisted goal with 27:24 to go but Lawliss came right back at 26:08 with her second goal of the half unassisted to put the Bears back in front, 6-5.

"This is one of our first games that we haven't fallen behind early and had to make a comeback," Eubanks said. "I'm very proud of the team for a consistent 60-minute effort."

But Colorado would run off the next four goals during a period of only 4:37 to open a 9-6 advantage with unassisted goals from Charlie Rudy both starting (23:02) and capping (18:25) the stretch. Rudy's goals sandwiched tallies from Chloe Willard (assist Phillips) and Ashley Stokes at 21:29 and 19:50.

Still, Cal would score four of the game's next five goals to get even at 10-10. Lawliss started the comeback with an unassisted goal at 16:25 before unassisted goals from Nikki Zaccaro (15:31) and Marisa Kuberra (13:45) evened the score at 9-9. Rudy put Colorado back in front, 10-9, with an unassisted goal at 10:40 but Morse answered with an unassisted goal at 6:15 to tie the game for the final time.

Rudy and Stokes each finished with a game-high-tying four goals.

Cal started strong in the opening minutes of the game when Lawliss (26:33, assist Zaccaro) and Morse (24:17) connected on the first two goals of the contest before Colorado answered with three straight unassisted scores from Sadie Grozier (21:58), Zoe Lawless (19:06) and Stokes (14:45).

Stokes added another goal at 12:40 on an assist by Grozier to give Colorado a 4-2 advantage 12:40 before halftime.

The teams played scoreless lacrosse for the next seven-and-a-half minutes before Cerino connected on assist by Kaia Evans with 5:10 to go and Morse tallied unassisted at 3:57 to knot the score at 4-4.

Cal continued its dominance of draw controls with a 15-9 advantage and has now had more draw controls than its opponent in nine of its first 13 contests. Freshman Kennedy Goss made her first career start for the Bears and finished with a career and game-high six draw controls while Kacie Riggs had five.

Cal and Colorado joined together to dedicate Sunday's game to the One Love Foundation and its mission to promote healthy relationships on their campuses and throughout their greater communities.

Cal begins a three-game Pac-12 road trip at USC on Friday (Noon PT).

"USC is a tough competitor," Eubanks said. "We just need to keep making our last game our best. We are trending in the right direction."