On Saturday, the Sonoma State men’s lacrosse team traveled to the campus of UC-Berkeley to take on the Cal Bears in an early season WCLL tilt. The Seawolves looked for some revenge after the Bears crushed their hopes of making nationals by beating them in the WCLL semifinals 10-9 in a double overtime thriller.
“We’ve had this game circled on our calendar since last year’s playoff loss to them,” captain Ryan Heidrich said.
The game was tied at eight going into the fourth quarter, but the Sonoma defense held the Bears scoreless in the 4th quarter and sophomore attackman Blane Sando’s goal with five-minutes left in the final frame would be the difference maker.
The game started off with the Bears controlling the first faceoff and sophomore attakman Sean Hayden scoring on a drive from X. Nic Scaramella would win the ensuing faceoff for Sonoma and senior Heidrich would tie the game at one.
Hayden would score his second goal of the game on a lefty drive from X to make the score 2-1. A nice outlet pass by Seawolf goalkeeper Dylan Fannin would lead to a fast break in which freshman Zach Swinford would find senior Matty Gillan on the crease to knot the game at 2. Turnovers by each team would halt the scoring until freshman Brad Bochesa found the back of the net late in the 2nd quarter to give the Seawolves their first lead of the game at 3-2. However, Cal would score two straight goals to make the game 4-3 at halftime.
“At halftime we felt that we needed to improve our clearing game and improve some sloppy play,” Senior midfielder Brian Ponzi said. “There were times where we just threw the ball away.”
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