LOS ANGELES — The No. 14 Santa Clara University men's water polo team stayed close early with No. 5 Stanford, but the Cardinal eventually pulled away, earning a 19-7 win at UCLA's Speiker Aquatics Center in the opening game of the Overnght MPSF Invitational.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Santa Clara's leading scorer Riccardo De Simon tallied all three of the Broncos' first three goals of the game in the first period. His first goal 42 seconds into the game tied it at 1-1. He answered the Cardinal (6-0) again just over 80 seconds later with his second goal to make it 3-2 at the time. He tacked on a penalty goal with 1:41 to go in the first, making the score 6-3 through one period.
   
• The game became a defensive one in the second period, with Santa Clara (4-3) limiting Stanford to only two goals, while the Cardinal's defense shut out the Broncos. Stanford would shut out SCU for more than 20 minutes in total across the end of the first, all of the second and third, and first half of the fourth periods. Stanford's offense, meanwhile, put in seven goals across the two periods – two in the second and five more in the third – to go up, 13-3.
   
• Santa Clara got back on the board in the fourth with four goals from four different goal scorers. Ashton Brown, Charlie Engs, Henry Engs and Imme van der Schaaf all scored in the final frame. Stanford got six more goals in the fourth from four players, including two from Ben Forer and Orestis Zervoudakis.
   
• Botond Balogh and Forer led the Cardinal with three goals each. De Simon tied them for the game high in goals with three of his own. Harrison Labrosse made six saves in net for Santa Clara, while West Temkin made five for Stanford.

COMING UP

• Santa Clara will play again at 9:30 a.m. Saturday across town at USC's Uytengsu Aquatics Center against the loser of Friday evening's contest between No. 7 Long Beach State and No. 15 California Baptist. The Broncos will play again Saturday at either 2 p.m. or 3:30 p.m., depending on if they win or lose their morning contest, also on the USC campus.
   
• Fans can find all live coverage links on SantaClaraBroncos.com.