FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Los Angeles, California – The Men in Cardinal and Gold improved their record to 6-2 with a 7-5 win over conference rival Claremont College yesterday.  The Claremont Cougars were first to score in the game, with a quick shot early in the first quarter off a face-off.  That goal was soon matched by an unassisted solo by sophomore attackman Jordan Levitz (Chicago, Ill. / Adelai E. Stevenson) to tie the score at 1 at the end of the first quarter.  From there, excellent riding pressure from the Trojans led to another goal by Levitz and one by senior midfielder Matthew Williams (Chapel Hill, Nc. / Durham Academy) to end the half with a 3-1 Trojan lead.

The third quarter saw an onslaught of Trojan shots, with only 3 finding the back of the Cougars goal.  Contributing these goals were Williams, sophomore midfielder Ricky Giancola (Centennial, Co. / Cherry Creek), and midfielder Andrew Smulligan (Lowell, Mass. / Lowell High School).

The Cougars made a strong final push in the fourth quarter, getting an early goal with 17 minutes left and quickly dumping in 3 more with under 2 minutes to play.  However, it wouldn’t be enough as time ran out.  With an additional 4th quarter goal for the Trojans by Williams, the final tally was 7-5, promoting the Trojans to an overall record of 6-2 and an SLC conference record of 1-1.

The Trojan defense, led by sophomore goalie Jeff Barton (Englewood, Co. / Cherry Creek), put forth a herculean effort against a shifty Cougar offense.  Barton stopped 79% of the shots he faced, and had strong defensive assistance from senior long stick midfielder Jeff Gleiberman (San Diego, Ca. / Torrey Pines) who knocked down or intercepted three passes and had two ground balls.  Sophomore defenseman Kameron Burke (McMurray, Pa. / Peters Township), freshman defenseman Will Indvik (Bainbridge Island, Wa. / Bainbridge), and junior defenseman JJ Pontes (Coronado, Ca. / Coronado) managed to shut down the Cougar offense for much of the game and kill all four Trojan penalties.

USC faces #2 ranked Chapman at home next week, 4/8/2010 at 7pm PST in another SLC conference battle, which will have significant implications for the Trojans playoff bid.

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The Trojans came out of the gates strong against a deep-benched Oregon State University, racking up 6 goals in the first quarter.  After their offense stalled in the second quarter, the men in cardinal and gold found themselves plagued by penalties the rest of the game and unable to produce, despite multiple shot opportunities.

Leading the scoring was returning, starting midfielder  Matt Williams (Chapel Hill, NC / Durham Academy) with 3 goals.  Attackmen John Duddridge (Santa Ana, CA / Foothill)  and Jordan Levitz (Chicago, IL / Stevenson) both contributed 2 goals, while attackman Avery Brovick (San Diego, CA / Francis Parker) and middies Will Purvis (Coronado, CA / Coronado) and Kase Lawal (Houston, TX / Kinkaid) all put one in.

Starting goalie, Jeff Barton (Englewood, CO / Cherry Creek), played a solid game with 13 saves and 12 clears, but with 8 1/2 penalty minutes against the Trojans, they found themselves on defense too much which resulted in an OSU Beavers 12-10 win.

February 9, 2009 – The USC Trojans Men’s Lacrosse Team lost two games this weekend against #9 ranked UC Santa Barbara and #25 ranked Santa Clara University.

The Men of Troy were in Santa Barabara on Saturday for a cold, gray afternoon of lacrosse.  The always rowdy UCSB fans didn’t phase the Trojans as they came out of the gates strong and kept pace with UCSB, tying the score at 2 by end of the first quarter with solo goals by  sophomore midfielder Ricky Giancola and freshman attackman John Duddridge.  However, with the start of the second quarter, it became clear that USC was going to have trouble clearing the ball as UCSB turned up the heat on its ride.  Unable to get the ball to the offense, the Trojans only posted 1 goal in the second quarter: a rip from Duddridge, fed by sophomore attacker Jordan Levitz.  Meanwhile, UCSB took advantage of their extended possession time and drove up their score by 5, leaving the half-time score at 7-2.

The Trojans offense, who had lost Giancola shortly after his first goal due to an injury, had little opportunity left.  Spending too much time in the penalty box and too little time clearing, USC came up short in the second half, producing only 3 more goals: a solo by senior captain Corey Janoff, another solo by Levitz, and a quick shot by attackman Nima Majd off a feed from Levitz.  UCSB finished off the second half with 6 more goals, making the final score of this conference game 13-6.

Sunday brought USC’s second home game – a faceoff with former WCLL rival and now out of conference opponent, Santa Clara University.  The Trojans were not as fast out of the gate in this game, allowing Santa Clara to rack up 8 goals in the first quarter, to USC’s 2: a feed from Janoff to Levitz, and a connection from junior midfielder Kase Lawal to Duddridge.  Mistakes and penalties continued to plague the Trojans for the rest of the first half, and Santa Clara cranked up their lead to 13-3 by halftime.  The sole USC goal in the second quarter was a Levitz to Duddridge shot.

The second half showed an entirely different USC team.  Rejuvinated and refocused by some outstanding play by sophomore captain and goalie Alex Rice, the Trojans won the second half of play.  USC posted 6 more goals in the second half (Levitz solo, Levitz fed by Majd twice, sophomore attacker Peter Randaccio fed by Majd, Janoff solo, and Janoff fed by Levitz), and held Santa Clara to only 5.  Unfortunately, it was not enough to overcome the early lead Santa Clara had created and the final score ended up 18-9.

The Trojans will spend this week regrouping and preparing for their upcoming trip to the Pac-10 Shootout at Stanford University where they will face Stanford (on 2/14) and Cal (on 2/15).

The men in Cardinal and Gold triumphed over the Pepperdine Waves today, 17 to 2.  Top goal contributors include transfer sophomore Jordan Levitz at attack with 5, fellow attackman and freshman John Duddridge with 3, and returning midfielders Ricky Giancola and Matt Williams, both scoring 2.  Putting on an all-star performance was captain and returning midfielder Corey Janoff with 4 goals and 14 won faceoffs.  Returning midfielder Case Lawal provided 1 goal and 1 assist while fellow returner Nima Majd assisted 2.

The dominant defense by starting long poles Hunter Meldman, David Krumwiede, and John Ludwig was supported by fellow close defenders Jordan Morse Reiff and freshman Chase Bakaly, holding the Waves to only 2 goals.  Supporting the defensive efforts were longstick midfielders Ryan Leaverton and Jamie Kline.

Goaltenders Addison Martinez, Alex Rice, and Jeff Barton took turns in the crease stopping nearly all the shots the Waves got off and starting clears that led to multiple fast break opportunities for the Trojans.

USC beat the Bruins Saturday night in a thrilling season ending game. The Trojans scored the winning goal with just over a minute to go in a game that is sure to provide plenty of fuel to the fire of this bitter rivalry for years to come. After falling behind by a small margin of 3-6 at the end of the first half USC came alive in the 3rd quarter and brought the game to a tie at 9-9 to begin the 4th. With just over a minute to go and the score tied at 12-12 Tyler McDonald scored a behind the back goal to give the Trojans the 13-12 victory!

Saturday Feb 2nd, USC Trojans Men’s Lacrosse team kicked off their regular season against the Pepperdine waves with a 15-6 victory. USC, with 22 rookies, played an impressive game where many freshmen saw playing time.

Freshman goalie Alex Rice (Blair Academy, NJ) making his first collegiate start was strong in the pipes making 12 saves out of 15 shots on cage. Three weeks of hard conditioning paid off with USC winning the face-off and ground ball battle. The two major contributors in the groundball battle were Luke Whiteside (Wesleyan, GA) 6 gb’s and Richie DeBeikes(University, CA) 5 gb’s.

USC scoring was led by impressive attack play by freshman Tyler McDonald (Hingham, MA) tallying 5 goals and 2 assists for 7 points in his first time wearing the cardinal and gold. The midfield was led by 2 stand out freshman Drew Ness (Westview, CA) with 3goals, 2 assists and Jake Medwell (Bellvue, WA) with 3 goals.

Next week the USC Trojans Men’s Lacrosse team is preparing for a home division rival with national powerhouse UCSB ranked #3 in the nation. Good luck to Pepperdine in 2008.

The Trojans tried to rekindle some of the fire from the early season on Sunday against LMU in their third division game of the season. USC came out looking like a much different team than they have in past weeks and were tied at the end of the first 1-1. The Trojans continued to play with this passion through the end of the half remaining close. However, USC let their focus slip in the third to allow LMU a four goal streak. It appeared that it was over for the Trojans until late in the fourth when they came back with their own four goal streak but it was too little too late. The Trojans lost 11-8.

USC’s next game is their final division game vs. UCSB away on Saturday, April 15th at 7:00pm at USC on Cromwell Field.

USC traveled to San Diego Saturday to take on the 2005 Division B Champion USD squad. USD came out firing right from the start and the Trojans were never able to catch back up. Despite many great shots from the offense the USD goalie was stopping almost everything thrown at him. The Trojans lost the contest 15-3.

The Trojan’s next game is another division game vs. LMU away on Sunday, April 9th at 1:00pm at LMU.

On Friday night USC stayed close in the opening quarter to a very tough Chapman squad but was soon riddled with penalty after penalty. The Trojans spent close to a quarter playing man-down, despite this disadvantage they made a late rally in the fourth quarter but it just wasn’t enough and fell to Chapman 16-9 in their second division game. Then two days later the Trojans travelled to Claremont. USC was able to remain close throughout the whole game but just never could quite catch Claremont and ended up losing 11-6.

USC broke out to a early 3-1 lead. UCLA then came back and eventually tied it up 4-4. The Bruins then went on a small run, making the score 8-6 at half. In the second half both teams came out fired up, playing in a very physical battle. Freshman midfielder Corey Janoff held is own at the face off X, as he went against one of the best in the WCLL. Kai Sato had five goals on six shots.An exciting game in which UCLA came out on top.

The Trojan’s next game is another division game vs. Chapman at home on Friday, March 24 at 7:30pm on the Howard Jones Field.