April 7, 2001 • Palo Alto, CA - Freshman Brent Johnson scored 4 goals to lead the Cossacks over the Cardinal in a key, Western Collegiate Lacrosse League, North division battle.

Johnson, coming back home to his native California after going to high school in Texas, exploded for a career high goal total, as his parents looked on. "This is my biggest scoring day as a college player," explained the visibly excited freshman. "I've had a goal here and there in other games, but Coach [Douglas Carl] put me on man-up these last couple of games and I've just stepped up my level of play. I'm starting to come out of my shell a little bit."

The Sonoma State defense, along with freshman goaltender Dominic Gomez, also contributed heavily to the victory, as the Cossacks sewed up the #1 seed for the upcoming league playoffs. Stanford, ranked #10 in the latest USLIA poll, controlled the ball for a majority of the first five minutes of the game, without being able to dent the SSU net. As play started to settle down, Don Collins of Sonoma State took it upon himself to see if the light bulbs worked in the scoreboard, 1-0 Cossacks. Brent Johnson quickly added his first goal of the game and the Sonoma offense had taken the pressure off the Cossack defense, 2-0 SSU. Two minutes later, John Wolf scooped up a rebound and slammed home Stanford's first goal--2-1 Sonoma State at the end of the very important first quarter.

"We didn't score early; everybody folded their tents a little bit," said Stanford coach Pete Bijesse. "We didn't play well. The difference in the game today was these guys [Sonoma State] have been there [in big games]. We have not. Fifteen years of not beating these guys-we're just learning how to do it. We had our looks today [at the goal] -we just didn't score. If we score a couple of goals early, it's a different game. Sonoma State knows how to win."

Sonoma State, ranked #4 in this week's USLIA poll, surfed the momentum of a strong first quarter and took advantage of the stunned Cardinal--scoring 10 of the next 13 goals--essentially sealing the victory. Stanford made a late charge, scoring 3 of the last four goals to make the final score 13-8.

"We have an energetic team, we're athletic-we're going to be a good team. At this point we are a competitive team that plays very hard," commented Coach Carl.

Matt Dennig, Sonoma's fantastic face-off midfielder, could possibly be the hardest worker on the field. Dennig won 10 of 15 face-offs to keep the ball in the Cossack offensive zone, contributing to the landslide of goals. "Their face-off guy [Dennig] had a hell of a game," added the impressed Bijesse.

Both teams will learn from this game and move on. Stanford plays California, Saturday April 14th, for the right to host the league quarter final playoff game, April 21st. Sonoma State will head to Southern California for spring break, to play UCLA and USC, as the Cossacks prepare to host their quarterfinal.

"We wanted to host that playoff game. Our fans are terrific-we wanted the seniors to have one last home game. That was a focus as we prepared for this Stanford team," said Coach Carl.