Titans Are No Match for Stanford in First Round

Cal State Fullerton knew all about the strength of Stanford’s defense, ranked No. 1 in the nation.

The Titans also found out quickly in the first round of the NCAA men’s soccer playoffs Saturday night that the Cardinal can be as adept at scoring goals as it is preventing them.

Third-seeded Stanford scored four times in the first 23 minutes for a 4-0 victory over the Titans in front of 1,150 at Stanford’s Maloney Field.

Senior forward Corey Woolfolk scored three goals within the first 21 minutes for the first hat trick of his college career.

The Cardinal (17-2-1) will play the winner of the first-round game today between Illinois Chicago and Bradley. The site of that game next weekend will be determined on Monday, but Stanford is expected to host.

Fullerton’s season ended with a 15-6-1 record, the third consecutive year the Titans have won 14 or more games.

But that didn’t take any of the sting out of the one-sided defeat.

“We were never in the game,” Titan Coach Al Mistri said. “This was not our team tonight, and that’s my regret. It seemed like we were frozen, and not capable of any action.”

Stanford surprised the Titans with a goal only 1 minute 13 seconds into the match. Woolfolk, who has played in 84 consecutive matches for Stanford since 1997, connected on a kick from 15 yards out on an assist by Derek Shanahan.

Woolfolk broke into the open on a drive for another goal in the 16th minute, with Ryan Nelsen getting the assist. Woolfolk scored his third consecutive goal in the 21st minute.

Shanahan drilled a shot into the left side of the net for another Stanford goal in the 23rd minute on an assist by Matt Moses, who played at Santa Margarita High.

“It seemed like we had barely sat down, and we were behind, 2-0,” Mistri said.

The Cardinal, which has given up only eight goals this season, posted its 15th shutout of the season, tying a school record set in 25 games in 1998. Senior Adam Zapala has been in goal for all the shutouts.

It was the first time this season Fullerton has been held scoreless.

Senior Duncan Oughton, who earlier in the season set a Titan career record for goals scored, was left one shy of the school’s season record with 17. Both Oughton and Mistri gave credit to the Stanford defense.

“It wasn’t just their four back guys,” Oughton said. “Their defense shut the ball down up front, and made it difficult to get things going.”

Mistri called Stanford “one of the better teams we’ve seen,” but was disappointed that his team was so flat early.

“When you get behind like we did, it makes it extremely difficult to do what you want to do,” Mistri said. “We seemed to have an extremely low work rate. I don’t know whether that was because of their first two goals or not. I just wish we could have played more like we normally play. We never seemed to bounce back.”

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Miguel Suazo scored the game’s only goal 10:56 into the first overtime period as San Diego defeated UCLA, 1-0, in a first-round game at San Diego.

The Toreros (16-1-2) ended the Bruins’ season when Suazo beat UCLA goalie DJ Countess to the right corner for his fifth goal of the season.

UCLA finished 12-7-0.