Oct. 6, 2002

Berkeley, Calif. - Attila Banhidy and Chris Lathrop tallied two goals apiece in leading the No. 4 Golden Bears (7-3) to an 8-6 victory over Pepperdine and a fifth-place finish in the NorCal Tournament's final day of action. Cal finished 3-1 over the weekend, with its only loss coming in a three-overtime thriller against No. 3 USC.

Most of the scoring came early for both teams as the Bears posted four different scorers in the first period to take a 4-3 lead. After Pepperdine's Scott Harvey tied it up with 4:13 to go in the half, the two teams battled it out defensively the rest of the way. Lathrop netted his second goal of the day to give the Bears the one-goal lead with just 35 seconds remaining in the half. But the Waves' Karl Niehaus struck back just 11 seconds later to knot the score 6-6 going into the break.

On one of the most beautiful goals of the day, Greg Panawek played give-and go with Banhidy in front of the Waves' net, tying the match once again 6-6 at the 2:20 mark of the third period. That's how the period would end ... in another deadlock.

The fourth period was one of intense action as both goalkeepers came up big between the pipes. Cal took the lead, 7-6, as Banhidy scored on a penalty shot with 3:27 left to play. With only 55 seconds left to play, Andrew Stoddard slipped an insurance power play goal past Pepperdine keeper Michael Soltis to give Cal the 8-6 lead and the game.

With his two-goal performance against Pepperdine, Lathrop finished the weekend as Cal's leading scorer with 6 goals. Banhidy finished a close second, posting five goals.

Game #30 (5th place)
California (7-3)  4-1-1-2 --- 8
Pepperdine (6-5)  3-2-1-0 --- 6
California Goals: Banhidy 2, Lathrop 2, Stoddard, Panawek, Conte, Arroyo
Pepperdine Goals: Niehaus 3, Harvey, Keitel, Smith
California Saves: Bernstein 10
Pepperdine Saves: Soltis 9