Stanford 2, Creighton 1, 2OT; UCLA 2, Maryland 1

Saturday December 14, 2002

By ANITA CHANG
Associated Press Writer

DALLAS (AP) Chad Marshall scored on a header in the second overtime period to send Stanford to the NCAA championship game with a 2-1 victory over Creighton on Friday night.

Stanford (17-4-2) will take on UCLA (17-3-3), a 2-1 semifinal winner over Maryland, in Sunday's title game. The Bruins, who won national titles in 1985, '90 and '97, beat the Cardinal twice during the regular season 1-0 both times.

In the 107th minute, midfielder Mike Wilson crossed the ball to Marshall, who headed it into the left side of the goal for the win.

Roger Levesque also scored for Stanford, which reached the championship game in 1998, but lost 3-1 to Indiana.

Mike Tranchilla scored on a penalty kick for Creighton (18-3-2).

``They put a lot of pressure on us. If we would have knocked the ball around a bit quicker, we would have handled that a lot better,'' Creighton captain Joe Wieland said.

In the first semifinal game, Adolfo Gregorio scored the go-ahead goal on a penalty kick in the 81st minute to lead UCLA past Maryland.

Stanford just missed clinching the win in the first overtime period when a volley went over the head of Creighton goalkeeper Mike Gabb, but midfielder Joe Wieland knocked the ball away with a bicycle kick.

``That ball seemed to hang in the air forever. I think it took the entire stadium a while to catch their breath after that,'' Levesque said.

Also in the first overtime period, Creighton forward Luiz Del Monte missed an open look at the goal, sending a weak shot wide left.

Creighton took a 1-0 lead when Tranchilla, the team's leading scorer with 15 goals, converted on a penalty kick in the 14th minute.

Levesque tied it at 1 when he volleyed the ball into the top of the net off a touch pass from Todd Dunivant.

Stanford's victory was big for coach Bret Simon, who coached at Creighton for six years. While in Omaha, he guided the Bluejays to two College Cup appearances.

``I didn't realize how personal this game was until we won. At first, I was ecstatic, but after I saw their players after the match I was sorry for them that their run had to end this way,'' Simon said.

In the earlier semifinal, UCLA was awarded the penalty kick after forward Cliff McKinley was pulled down in the box by Maryland goalkeeper Noah Palmer.

McKinley was on a straightaway run in the box, and had Palmer beat when the goalkeeper grabbed McKinley's leg, giving the Bruins their tiebreaking penalty kick.

``I thought I got my hand on the ball before he went down, but unfortunately the ref didn't, and he got the penalty kick,'' Palmer said.

The play was almost identical to one in the Bruins' game against Penn State last week. The Penn State goalie was ejected with a red card, and the resulting penalty kick tied the game 1-1. The Bruins went on to win that game 7-1.

Matt Taylor also scored for UCLA, while Maryland (20-5), the No. 2 seed in the tournament, got a goal from Sumed Ibrahim. All the scoring occurred in a seven-minute span late in the second half.

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)