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Broncos starts off season with strong win over UCSC

Box Score

Feb. 8, 2014

The Santa Clara Broncos opened their season with a win Saturday night over the UCSC Banana Slugs by a score of 23-5. Originally planned as an away game, the game was moved to Santa Clara’s Bellomy Field due to poor field conditions in Santa Cruz and inclement weather forecasted for game time. Though the rain held off, the conditions were wet as the Broncos and Banana Slugs squared off for the 4^th consecutive season. Though UCSC would get on the board first, it was all Broncos from then on out, as Santa Clara’s offenses exploded for the fourth straight win over Santa Cruz in as many years. Santa Clara featured a balanced offense which saw 23 goals come from 15 different players. Sophomore Brendan Phinny and Senior Scott Wheaton both scored three times, and four other players scored twice.

Scoring their first goals as Broncos were freshman Oscar Stevenson, an attackman from Jesuit High School in Portland, Oregon, and Erik Risa, a midfielder and faceoff man from the Overlake School in Seattle, Washington, who also snagged 6 ground balls. Reid Kenny, a sophomore from Seattle’s Garfield High School also notched his first goal as a player at Santa Clara. Also appearing in their first games as Broncos were midfielder Matt Lam, a transfer from Foothill College, and Junior Defenseman Ryan Mahoney. 

Defensively, the Broncos were led by Junior C.J. Toy who scooped up 6 ground balls, and rookie goalkeeper Matt Sarver. The freshman from Lake Oswego, Oregon was unflinching in his first regular season appearance for the Broncos. Sarver posted 14 saves while allowing only 5 goals, 2 of which came in the waning minutes of the contest. 

Santa Clara will look to build on the momentum from this win as they take their first extended road trip of the season. This weekend Santa Clara will travel to Southern California to take on Claremont on Saturday at 2pm and LMU on Monday at noon.