PALO ALTO, Calif. — The No. 12 UC Santa Barbara Men's Water Polo team played its first true road game of the season on Thursday, traveling to No. 2 Stanford. Playing in a pool just two miles from where he went to high school, Luke Bachler marked his homecoming with a hat-trick for the Gauchos. It was the highlight of the afternoon for Santa Barbara, who fell to the Cardinal, 16-9.
 
FROM HEAD COACH WOLF WIGO
"There were some good moments and some bad moments, and if you have bad moments against a top team, you're going to pay," Wigo said. "We had a lot of play where the game was even and then a few minutes where they got a couple goals. Lot of promise there, I think we can beat these guys if we play them again, but today wasn't our day and the guys have to learn from it."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The teams traded goals to open the game, with Dom Brown providing the Gauchos' answer to the Cardinal's opener. Stanford fired back with two more goals, but Adam Gyenis scored to pull Santa Barbara back within a goal late in the first quarter.
 
The Cardinal scored the final goal of the first and the first goal of the second quarter to lead 5-2, then the teams traded scores again, with Finn Genc making it 5-3 and Danilo Dragovic making it 6-4 later on.
 
Stanford led just 7-4 at the half but pulled away with a six-goal third quarter, leading by as much as a 12-4 margin before Bachler scored his first of the day. He scored again to make it 12-6, and finished his hat-trick in the fourth quarter, making it 15-9 at the time.
 
UP NEXT
The Gauchos will be back in action with a great opportunity to bounce back this weekend, heading to the Inland Empire Classic, where four Division-III opponents await them. Santa Barbara will play Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and La Verne in Claremont on Saturday, then Redlands and Pomona-Pitzer in Redlands on Sunday.