Sept. 20, 2007

The Santa Clara men's water polo team played a strong game tonight, beating Fordham 14-9 in front of a big crowd in their home opener. Josh Early, Liam Farrell, and Tommy Hendrickson all had big games, scoring four goals each. "We came out ready to play tonight," said head coach Keith Wilbur.

The Broncos led early, with Hendrickson providing some early scoring and had a 4-2 advantage at the end of the first quarter when Early hit a long shot with one second left on the clock to make it 5-2. "I wanted to wait for it," said Early. "I knew it would be a huge boost to the team." Early also contributed a steal in the game.

The game stayed close in the second quarter and Santa Clara only led by two when two players were ejected and the team faced a 4 on 6 late in the quarter. The Broncos locked down on defense and blocked a couple of big shots to keep the lead at two going into the second half.

"That was a huge stop. It really gave us momentum," said senior goalkeeper Robert Callahan. "I know for a fact that Luke Oda had at least one of those blocks as well.

"It was a big defensive play," said Wilbur. "I told the guys to just play through the calls and that's exactly what they did."

In the second half the Broncos came out firing, with Early and Farrell scoring the first two goals of the half. The score was 10-6 going into the fourth quarter, but then Santa Clara put the game out of reach in the fourth, even leading by seven at one point. The final score seemed closer as Santa Clara gave up two late in the fourth quarter.

"We had a couple of guys break through tonight that we really needed to," said Wilbur. "Josh, Liam, and Tommy are some of our best outside shooters, and our outside shooting was on tonight."

Mike Sorgenfrei and Stephen Hobbs each scored a goal to round out the scoring for the Broncos. Oda, Farrell, Jeff Welch, Mike Detoy, Hobbs, and Sorgenfrei all drew kickouts for the Broncos as well. Matt Adler and Tommy Kelly got into the action, both notching an assist along with Farrell, Hendrickson, and Sorgenfrei.

Callahan had a solid night in goal, blocking nine shots and recording an assist as well.

The team couldn't say enough about the fans either. "They were great," said Callahan. "All the cheering, it really gets our adrenaline going."

The Broncos have Friday off before heading to Santa Cruz for Slugfest, a weekend tournament involving the other teams in the conference.