Card Falls to Prime-Ranked Trojans – Stanford Cardinal

LOS ANGELES – No. 3 Stanford fell on the road to No. 1 USC this afternoon, dropping the MPSF contest 14-9. The Cardinal moves to 12-6 on the season, and 1-4 in conference play.

The Card and Trojans were level after the first period, tied up at 2-2 thanks to Stanford goals from Botond Balogh and Guido Leonardi.

Balogh gave Stanford a lead for the first time in the second quarter at 3-2, then two goals from Gianpiero Di Martire and a score from Ben Forer made it a 6-3 halftime advantage.

USC re-took the lead in the third period, scoring six times to take a 9-7 advantage into the fourth.

The Trojans added to the lead in the fourth for the 14-9 final.

Balogh and Di Martire each finished with hat tricks, and West Temkin made nine saves in the cage.

Next up for the Cardinal is a road matchup with No. 17 Santa Clara on Saturday, before closing out the regular season at home on Sunday against No. 8 Pacific. The gme against Pacific will start at 1:00 p.m. PT, and can be streamed on Overnght.

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No. 3 Stanford vs. No. 1 USC

USC       2 – 1 – 6 – 5 = 14

STAN     2 – 4 – 1 – 2 = 9

STAN Goals: B. Balogh (3), G. Di Martire (3), G. Leonardi, Ben Forer, A. Gheorghe

USC Goals: L. Nelson (3), S. Brankovic (2), J. Martin (2), J. Vort (2), A. Grgurevic, R. Duart, E. Naipoglu, E. Ausmus, S. Krstic