Santa Clara Comes Back to Beat Stanford
Santa Clara Comes Back to Beat Stanford
Santa Clara University came back from a 19-3 deficit Friday night to defeat Stanford 22-19 in an early non-conference game between the two.
Playing under the lights at Santa Clara, Stanford scored i the opening minutes when senior scrumhalf Alejandro Sanchez zipped over, and with Sam Falkenhagen’s conversion, the Cardinal led 7-0.
Stanford played a lot of defense in the first half, but did it well. What they didn’t do well was secure the ball in contact and avoid penalties. Still they held the lead. JJ Holmgren slotted a penalty goal for Santa Clara, but that was it for the first half for his team. Midway through the first half, Stanford got on the front foot, worked the phases and moved the ball through the hands for junior Wesley Greiner to break several tackled for the try and a 14-3 lead. Stanford held their defensive line well enough and their cover defense was there and the two teams changed ends with Stanford still up 14-3.
Soon it was 19-3. Falkenhagen went over early in the second half. But after that, Santa Clara started to claw their way back. They set up an attack from a lineout and then burst through the midfield for Connor Rounds to score. Holmgren converted to make it 19-10. Then with 17 minutes to go Santa Clara countered and Matt Fitzgerald scored to make it 19-15. Now the Broncos were within a try. With eight minutes left, Santa Clara pressured again. They kept their composure and Miguel Chapa raced around the edge of the ruck. Holmgren kicked the conversion and it was 22-19 Santa Clara.
Stanford had one more shot thanks to a penalty, but the attack ended when Santa Clara blocked the potential game-tying drop goal.
Stanford showed well defensively and in the set piece, especially the scrum. But they struggled to control the ball and eventually the Santa Clara pressure told the story. Stanford won B-side game 38-0.
“I think it took time for our team to settle down,” said Santa Clara club president Tyson Dethlefsen. “But we had good leadership from our scrumhalf Mark Juppenbender to keep our offense moving even though we made some mistakes early on.”
In the second half, Santa Clara cut out the mistakes in the red zone.
“We wanted to focus on poaching the ball and sharper running lines, which paid of with Matt Fitzgerald and Ryan Chavkin both having good breaks that led to tries,” Dethlefsen added.
Santa Clara 22
Tries: Rounds, Fitzgerald, Chapa
Convs: Holmgren 2
Pens: Holmgren
Stanford 19
Tries: Sanchez, Greiner, Falkenhagen
Convs: Falkenhagen 2
