Nov. 25, 2001
STANFORD, Calif. - The Santa Clara University men's soccer team concluded its 2001 season with a 3-1 loss to second-ranked Stanford in NCAA Second Round Tournament Play Sunday in Stanford, Calif.
Stanford (17-1-1) freshman Matt Janusz capitalized early on two Santa Clara (12-9) mistakes scoring the game's first goal at the 4:19 mark, and adding his second at the 23:24 mark to give the Cardinal a 2-0 score before the Broncos knew what hit them.
Santa Clara played tough the remainder of the first stanza, battling through the cold weather and slippery playing conditions from the rain the night before. Senior Anthony Chimienti pulled the Broncos within one with just over three minutes remaining in the half when he took a nicely played ball from Jamil Walker and blasted a left-footed shot into the upper right corner of the net, beating Andrew Terris for his sixth goal of the season.
The goal moved Chimienti into eight place all-time in Santa Clara history in points, giving him 61 for his career, and solidified his place in fifth on the all-time goals list as a Bronco with 25 career goals.
"I really thought that might be a turning point for us scoring so late in the first half," said Chimienti. "We came out really fired up in the second half, but we just didn't do our jobs."
The momentum that the Broncos may have picked up going into halftime was quickly taken away when Janusz scored his third goal of the game and eighth of the season at the 52:23 mark to put the game effectively out of reach.
Both teams took less than 10 shots in the game, both made two save and took three corner kicks, but Santa Clara was whistled for 21 fouls while Stanford was only called for 12.
Despite the loss to the Cardinal on Sunday, Santa Clara has to consider their season a success after many people wrote them off early in the season.
"I am extremely proud of my team," said head coach Mitch Murray. "We started off very slow this year but our guys hung in there, battled throughout the season, won a very tough West Coast Conference crown and made it in to the tournament. We played well on Friday and beat Cal, today we didn't play as well as we wanted to and Stanford made us pay. They deserve a lot of credit for playing well and beating us, but overall for the season I am very proud of my team and pleased with their performance this year."
Murray has much to be proud about, with his team, comprised of a lot of under classmen, winning their first conference title since 1997. Considering five of the seven teams from the conference made it into the NCAA Tournament, that is quite an achievement in its own.
