Cal Poly Shows Depth; Wins Twice and Goes 7-1
Cal Poly Goes to 7-1 on Season
With one of the most talented, youngest and deepest teams in recent memory, a tired Cal Poly Mustang Lacrosse team was facing a crucial weekend of games. Although coping with numerous injuries the Mustangs were led by their two All American Defensive players #8 Goalie Sean Pihl (12 and 15 saves respectively on the weekend) and their shut down defender #11 Gideon Baum. The Mustangs came away with a 2 win weekend and improved their record to 7-1.
The weekend opened with an important league game over the University of Santa Clara Broncos. The scoring started with less than 2 minutes gone in the first quarter when freshman midfielder Mitch Stickney #18 hit from the outside to make it 1-0. At 9:53 Cal Poly went up 2-0 on an assist from sophomore Ben Berkow #5 hit freshman Phenom AJ Guralas #3 with a great feed in the crease. Santa Clara tallied one to make it 2-1 then #15 Andrew Horton hit Guralas again, this time in the wing, to make it 3-1. With two and half minutes gone in the third junior attackman Matt Fagan #25 again found #3 Guralas for an early hat trick as AJ hit a laser over the Bronco goalie’s head. Less than 2 minutes later the Mustangs hit again when #7 Joe Dresser fed freshman attackman Evan Hunter #27 to stretch the lead to 5-1. Santa Clara scored again to make it 5-2. At the 10:40 mark in the third sophomore John Corbolotti #2, coming off an injury that sidelined him for the last two games, went alone to find the net and make the score 6-2. Less than a minute and a half later Corbolotti hit again unassisted to make it 7-2. The Broncos scored again to make it 7-3. The Mustang scored again with the final tally at 4:28 when Joe Dresser went solo to make it 8-3 the final score. The win places Cal Poly a three way tie with Sonoma State and Stanford for the WCLL regular season crown.
On a Sunday that saw sunshine and showers the 23rd ranked and unbeaten (4-0) University of Minnesota Lacrosse team came to San Luis Obispo to face the Mustangs. The Golden Gophers struck early and often to take a 3-1 lead with less than 5 minutes gone in the first quarter. The only Mustang score came on an unassisted goal by John Corbolotti #2. With 9:07 in the first #29 freshman Tucker Reed fed #3 AJ Guralas to make it 3-2. At the 7:51 mark Joe Dresser went top shelf to make it a new game at 3-3. Minnesota scored again to make it 4-4. Cal Poly tied it up again at 3:41 when a freshman to freshman connection came with Guralas and a nifty feed to #27 Evan Hunter. A Gopher goal made it 5-4. At 9:28 on a breakaway #39 Tucker Reed fought for a terrific ground ball and hit Corbolotti on a breakaway to make it 5-5. A little more than a minute later Cal Poly took their first lead of the day; 6-5; on an assist from #7 Joe Dresser to #3 Guralas. Minnesota showed grit and determination and tallied the next two goals to go up 7-6. The Mustangs tied it all up again at 7-7 when Tucker Reed hit #5 Ben Berkow for the score.Late in the third quarter both AJ Guralas and John Corbolotti scored unassisted tallies to make it 9-7. The Gophers rallied late in the fourth to make it 9-8 but fell short.
In wins that showed the depth of this year’s team and a maturing offense under first year coach Bobby Dabrieo, it is the defense that has continually shined. This group is only allowing an average of 6 goals a game. A spectacular statistic.