Oct. 12, 2001
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Five different Santa Clara players scored and the fourth-ranked Broncos fell just five shots short of a school record in its 5-0 win over San Francisco tonight in the West Coast Conference opener for both teams at Buck Shaw Stadium.
Santa Clara outshot the Lady Dons by a margin of 35-6 during the course of the game, including a 17-2 second-half margin to improve to 10-1-0 on the season and 1-0-0 in the WCC. San Francisco fell to 4-5-1 overall and 0-1-1 in the WCC. The school record for shots is 40 against Hartford in 1996.
"You really have to give San Francisco credit," said Jerry Smith. "We got a lot of shots off in the first half and couldn't put it in. That was really due to their energy, enthusiasm and defensive pressure. We were able to wear them down a bit in the second half and had more success in putting the ball into the goal. This is the same team that took us to overtime last year and I really think they are a bit better than last year."
Santa Clara narrowly missed its first 16 shots over the course of the first 43:37 of the game, including two shots that hit the top post. Sophomore Veronica Zepeda took a pass from Lana Bowen, faked the defender and slid the ball into the lower left corner of the goal to give the Broncos a 1-0 lead with just 6:23 left in the half. It was Zepeda's sixth goal of the year.
Seven minutes into the second half, Bronco senior Kristi Candau scored her second goal of the season off a perfect pass across the penalty box from Aly Wagner. Freshmen Leslie Osborne and Bree Horvath scored the next two goals for the Broncos before sophomore Chardonnay Poole notched her first goal of the year with just 7:22 left in the game.
"Veronica Zepeda deserves a lot of credit tonight," said Smith. She did a lot for us with a great job of dribbling, passing, scoring and with her assists. Her performance tonight really helped due to the fact that Aly Wagner didn't really have her typical great game. It's hard to expect even great players to come out and have great performances every single game. Aly hasn't really had a not great game this year until tonight and Veronica really took a lot of pressure off her."
The Broncos will spend Saturday travelling to Spokane, Wash. for a 1 p.m. Sunday matchup at Gonzaga.
"Sunday's game will be a little different experience for our players," said Smith. "We haven't really done this trip before in this fashion. After tonight's game, we travel most of the day Saturday then play Sunday. That, combined with a little different environment at Gonzaga in terms of atmosphere and weather, will make it quite a challenge for us."
Santa Clara's next home game is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 18 against No. 2-ranked UCLA.