SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- On a rainy afternoon, Cal Poly rolled to a 5-1 record with a 16-8 victory over WCLL opponent Cal-Berkeley on Saturday.The Mustangs scored early and often, then held off a third quarter surge to put the Bears away in the fourth quarter.

The scoring started at 12:50 in the first when sophomore Ben Berkow fed fellow sophomore Andrew Laron for the score. This was followed less than two minutes later when Cal Poly went man up and freshman AJ Guralas passed to the wing to freshman Tucker Reed, who sent a laser into the top corner to take a 2-0 lead.

The Bears scored a minute later to make it 2-1. Junior attackman Matthew Paul (2g) took it the ball in transition and finished off a solo goal with 9:53 left in the first. With just under five minutes, Loran hit the back of the net again with an assist from freshman Mitch Stickney. The first quarter scoring concluded with a goal from Paul and Berkow, giving Cal Poly a 6-2 lead.

The second and third quarters were hard fought, as Cal Poly scored two more goals in the second: one by Berkow (3g, 1a) and another by Guralas (5g, 1a). Cal answered with a pair, leaving it 8-4 at halftime.

The third quarter started quickly for the Mustangs with a quick goal from Berkow followed by another unassisted goal by Stickney (1g, 1a) to give Cal Poly a 10-4 lead. However Cal was not done, as the Bears scored the next three to tighten the game at 10-7. Guralas added one to keep the lead 11-7 for Cal Poly.

The fourth quarter was all Mustangs, with the highlight being a spectacular one handed goal by Guralas in the fourth off a feed by Laron. Also, a coast-to-coast clear off a steal from Chris Yoshida ended with a great goal. Adding goals in the fourth were Guralas and Evan Hunter (1g, 1a). Cal could only muster a single goal in the last stanza to make it a 16-8 Cal Poly win.

“Good win for the program; it’s always nice to win league games," said Cal Poly coach Bobby Dabrieo. "We beat a well-coached, scrappy Cal team that made us earn it. Offensively, we’ve struggled in the first half of games this season so it was nice to score six in the first quarter. I think this should give our team more confidence that we have the potential to win both high scoring and low scoring games. Hopefully we can build off of this performance with two tough teams coming into town next weekend.”