PALO ALTO “”mdash; With the top ranking in the nation on the line, Stanford defeated UCLA 8-6 in a crucial Mountain Pacific Sports Federation water polo match Saturday at Stanford’s Avery Aquatics Center.
The game was an emotional, back-and-forth affair that went down to the wire, but in the end it was too much Wigo for the No. 2 Bruins (10-2, 0-1) to handle.
Twins Drac and Janson Wigo combined for six of the Cardinal’s eight goals, with Janson Wigo scoring four and Drac Wigo tallying two. With No. 1 Stanford (9-0, 1-0) consistently running its offense through the talented senior utilitymen, UCLA was unable to come up with an ideal defensive formula to stop the assault.
Stanford built a 5-2 lead at halftime behind a capacity crowd, the majority of whom attended the game as an appetizer before heading across the street to watch the Bruins and Cardinal battle on the gridiron.
Each of the Wigo twins scored a pair of goals in the first half, with UCLA getting tallies from redshirt senior attacker Scott Davidson and junior defender Emilio Vieira.
Davidson’s second goal of the match made the score 6-5 early in the fourth quarter, as the Bruins finally began to solve Stanford’s athletic goalkeeper Jimmie Sandman, and UCLA redshirt senior goalkeeper Chay Lapin made some huge saves of his own to hold Stanford’s offense in check.
The controversial turning point of the game occurred with two minutes to play in the fourth quarter. With Stanford ahead 7-6, Sandman found Drac Wigo with a long outlet pass behind the UCLA defense. While Lapin made an outstanding save to thwart the breakaway, he was whistled for a 5-meter penalty at the same time for making contact with Drac Wigo. Janson Wigo converted the subsequent, giving Stanford a two-goal advantage and squashing any momentum the Bruins may have gained from Lapin’s stop.
Despite the emotionally charged loss, the Bruins rebounded nicely the next day as they defeated No. 11 Santa Clara (13-5) by an 11-5 margin to complete their Bay Area road trip. Davidson, Vieira, redshirt sophomore attacker Cullen Hennessy and junior attacker Ben Hohl all scored two goals as UCLA fell behind 3-0 after the first quarter but bounced back with four unanswered goals in the second and coasted the rest of the way.
The Bruins will open the UC Irvine Invitational on Saturday against Redlands.