USC
California (NorCal Championship)
No. 1 USC Wins Third Straight NorCal Tournament Title
September 16, 2007 | Men's Water Polo
Sept. 16, 2007
For the third straight year, USC squared off against California in the NorCal Tournament championship game. And for the third straight time, the Trojans topped the Bears to claim the title. This time, it was a neck-and-neck battle throughout. With five seconds remaining in regulation and the game locked up 8-8, senior Tommy Corcoran earned USC a 5-meter penalty shot. Senior Gabor Sarusi stepped up and drilled it, notching a career-high third goal of the game and propelling the undefeated and top-ranked Trojans to victory with a 9-8 win in the final. USC is now 5-0 on the year after beating No. 4 Stanford 9-5 in today's semifinals and grabbing the tight 9-8 win over No. 2 Cal in the championship game on Sunday at Berkeley's Spieker Aquatics Complex. It is Cal's first loss of the year, putting the Bears at 9-1 overall.
After opening up the game in a 3-3 lock-up, USC continued to balance out its attack. The Trojans' first six goals came from the hands of six different scorers. Anthony Artukovich, Jovan Vranes and Drew Vyn all nailed the back of the net in the first to make it 3-3. Sarusi scored his first goal in the second, and Justin Rappel followed to leave things at 5-5 for halftime. In the third, scoring slowed somewhat, as Cal and USC matched each other once again with a goal apiece. Jordan Thompson blazed in that period's strike for the Trojans, bringing up the fourth period with the score even at 6-6.
Sarusi scored again in the fourth, but Cal took an 8-7 lead with three minutes left in regulation. USC sophomore Nico Sardo leveled things again with the equalizer at 2:23, and the championship battle continued. With just second remaining, Cal was whistled for a 5-meter penalty, earned with hard work at 2-meters by Trojan senior Tommy Corcoran. Sarusi got the call to take the shot, and he nailed it, lifting USC to its third consecutive NorCal Tournament championship.
In the morning's semifinals, USC handed Stanford its first loss of 2007 with a fairly lopsided 9-5 win to punch through to the final. The Trojans leapt out in front of the No. 4 Cardinal with four first-period goals and charged farther ahead in the second with a trio of scores to put Stanford behind 7-2 at halftime. Stanford became the first team this year to score more than a single goal in a period against the Trojans, with two goals in the third, but USC's hefty lead held steady as the Trojans plugged in one more in the fourth to match Stanford's fourth-period goal and tack up the 9-5 semifinal win. Seven Trojans accounted for USC's nine goals in the semifinal clash, marking a wholly balanced attack for USC. J.W. Krumpholz was the only Trojan to tally more than one goal, notching a hat trick, with Drew Vyn, Shea Buckner, Gabor Sarusi, Anthony Artukovich, Arjan Ligtenberg and Tommy Corcoran all getting to the back of the net in the win.
USC returns to action this weekend with a home game against Pepperdine, which placed fifth at the NorCal Tournament. The Trojans host the Waves at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday (Sept. 22).
CHAMPIONSHIP
#1 USC 9, #2 California 8
USC 3 - 2 - 1 - 3 - 9
CAL 3 - 2 - 1 - 2 - 8
SCORING:
CAL - Michael Sharf 3, Adam Haley 2, Vladislav Andreyev, Jeff Tyrrell, Zac Monsees.
USC - Gabor Sarusi 3, Anthony Artukovich, Jovan Vranes, Drew Vyn, Justin Rappel, Jordan Thompson, Nico Sardo.
SAVES: Adam Shilling (USC) 5, Mark Sheredy (CAL) 11.
SEMIFINAL
#1 USC 9, #4 Stanford 5
STAN 1 - 1 - 2 - 1 - 5
USC 4 - 3 - 1 - 1 - 9
SCORING: STAN - Sage Wright 2, Michael Bury, Alex Pulido, Will Smith.
USC - J.W. Krumpholz 3, Drew Vyn, Shea Buckner, Gabor Sarusi, Anthony Artukovich, Arjan Ligtenberg, Tommy Corcoran.
SAVES: Adam Shilling (USC) 10, Sandy Hohener (STAN) 9.
