SANTA CLARA, Calif. - After a long weekend down in Southern California, the No. 15 Broncos finished strong, picking up a win over Pomona-Pitzer. The SoCal Tournament hosted a number of top-20 ranked teams that proved to be tough match ups for the Broncos. The Broncos will bring it home for their first home games of the season on Oct. 20. The Broncos are now 10-8 this season.
The Broncos started off the weekend facing No. 3 Pacific for the third time this season. The Broncos were able to keep the game close, finishing the first quarter with Pacific ahead 3-2 after goals from Kyle Nadel and Garret Johnson. The Tigers ran away with the game in the second going on a five-goal run. Patrick Weiss and Graham McClone each scored a goal in the second half, but it wasn't enough for the win. Pacific took the win 14-4.
In their second game of the day, the Broncos faced the No. 11 Concordia University Irvine Eagles. Mark Davis came out firing, scoring the first goal of the game. Concordia fired back throwing in three quick goals. With a goal by Tucker Carlson and two more from Concordia, the first quarter ended with the Eagles leading 5-2. Theo Nasser, Evan Chang, Jimmy Moore and Matt Godar scored their only goals of the game in the second quarter, making the score 7-6 going into half. After half, the Eagles controlled the rest of the game, finishing it off by winning 13-11. Matt Kochalko had two goals in the third quarter, David Guibord had one and Carlson scored his second one in the fourth.
On Sunday, the Broncos played their first conference match of the season against No. 10 Loyola Marymount. LMU quickly went up by two in the first quarter but Nasser and Carlson followed suit making the game tied 2-2 with 4:27 left to play in the first. The Lions got three more goals and Guibord got one to make it 5-3 LMU after the first. Nadel got two quick goals to tie the game again in the second but LMU made the score 7-5 going into half. The Broncos stayed in the game with goals from Davis and one from Weiss in the third to make it 10-8 LMU. Stephen Bilz threw one in and Weiss followed to again tie the game 10-10 in the fourth. Unfortunately, the Lions found a way to get another one in and won 11-10.
Looking for a win, the Broncos played Pomona-Pitzer in their final game of the weekend. The game was tied 3-3 at the end of the first with goals from Weiss, Davis and Godar. With a quick goal from Carlson to open the second, the Broncos took the lead. Guibord, Nasser and Weiss all scored a goal in the second to make it 7-4 SCU going into half. Kochalko opened up the third with a goal and Weiss scored his third of the game and Davis scored his second. With the game in the bag, Graham McClone threw one in to top the game off 11-6. Matt Pritchett recorded six blocks this game.
Pritchett had a great weekend, and combined for 32 blocks from all four games.
The Broncos will head back to the Sullivan Aquatic Center and host their first home games of the season again No. 1 UCLA at 12 pm and West Valley at 4 pm on Oct. 20. In addition, they will also have their annual alumni game on Oct. 19 at 12 pm.
