Recap: Regular season action wraps up at Cagan
Last week, regular season action ended at Cagan Stadium for No. 1 Stanford men’s soccer and No. 2 Stanford women’s soccer:
On Wednesday, October 22nd Stanford men’s soccer defeated San Francisco 1-0 with Shane de Flores scoring the lone goal at the 65:58 mark.
On Saturday, October 25th Stanford women’s soccer defeated SMU 5-1 on senior night as Andrea Kitahata had a brace, scoring at 55:29 and 57:31. Stanford women’s soccer improves to 14-1-1 overall and 8-0-1 in the ACC.
On Sunday, October 26th, Stanford men’s soccer tied SMU 0-0 on senior night. Stanford outshot SMU 18-13, but wasn’t able to get one to drop. Stanford men’s soccer is now 12-1-2 overall and 5-1-1 in the ACC.
BOX SCORE: San Francisco at Stanford-Wednesday, October 22nd
BOX SCORE: SMU at Stanford-Saturday, October 25th
BOX SCORE: SMU at Stanford-Sunday, October 26th
Starting with the men’s victory over San Francisco, things were tied up 0-0 at halftime despite Stanford outshooting San Francisco 12-1. Stanford had just one corner kick at 37:00 in the first half while San Francisco had zero. Stanford was playing better, but with it being tied, they were one slip up away from going down.
“San Francisco having an amazing season, very good team, and we knew it would be a really difficult game,” Stanford head coach Jeremy Gunn said of the victory over the Dons. “That being said, we had some great chances in the first half and if we’d managed to open them up, I think we would have seen a different game that would have been a bit more free flowing.
“And I think, if we got that early first goal, we would have been in a great position, but we didn’t manage to convert those chances, and so, it just got a little bit tighter and a little bit cagier. We’re clearly on top, but it was one of those cat and mouse games that you could just fail with one moment and suddenly you’re in trouble.
“And, want to commend the defense for still being very very solid in a game where you could just give those openings and I thought we were very good with that. We gave them very little to be excited about and it was just hopefully gonna be a matter of time. And in the end, fantastic goal for Shane. Scoring a great goal there and a great moment.”
The second half was much more urgent on both sides as Stanford had corner kicks at 48:07, 55:49, and 56:57 while San Francisco had corner kicks at 52:05 and 60:09. It was still tied 0-0 after that point, but things were getting more aggressive and it looked like a goal was coming.
“We just needed to be, we needed to get people in the right positions and not get frustrated,” Gunn said. “Because when you’ve got a team that can sit and defend the boxer well, just people start to try too hard and try to do other people’s jobs. Like no, no. Do your job, do it well, trust the man next to you, and we’ll be okay. We’ll be able to create the chances from the right positions and in the end, we end up scoring a good goal in a moment that was well created and a wonderful near post finish by Shane. It’s a great goal.”
Finally, at 65:48, Shane de Flores found the bottom right of the goal off his right foot thanks to an assist from Will Cleary. That made it 1-0. From there, Stanford would hang on to win the match 1-0.
“Yeah, that was a great team play,” de Flores said of his goal. “I’ll give all credit to Cleary on that one. He did some great work on the wing. And then we’ve been emphasizing box movement all week. So, it was a good little double movement to get him behind and then tapping home for the goal. So, all praise to Cleary on that one…I think that’s the beauty of this team is it’s not always just one person that we’re relying on. There’s a lot of different goal scorers on this team. So, I think we were just putting the pressure on them, pressing well, putting the ball behind them, getting balls in the box, and the chances were coming and it was just a matter of time before one went in.”
Moving on to the women’s victory over SMU, this one was tight for the first half as Stanford led 1-0. Sammy Smith scored for the Cardinal at 40:44 right before halftime, finding the bottom right of the goal off her right foot. Stanford outshot SMU 9-3 in the first half and was looking strong, but needed to do more to put the Mustangs away for good.
In the second half, Stanford did just that as they outshot SMU 18-7, while outscoring SMU 4-1 to win the match 5-1. Andrea Kitahata scored the first two goals of the second half at 55:29 and 57:31 to make it a 3-0 lead. Eleanor Klinger got the assist on the first goal while Charlotte Kohler got the assist on the second goal.
Stanford would then go up 4-0 after a goal from Logan Smith at 62:21 as Kohler got her second assist of the night. Kohler then got her third assist for the night at 64:37 as she connected with Elise Evans, who found the bottom right of the goal off her right foot to make it 5-0. SMU would finally get on the board at 81:49 as Sydney Japic found the bottom right of the goal off her right foot. 5-1 would be the final score as Stanford cruised to a senior night victory.
Ending with the men’s 0-0 draw against SMU on Sunday, this one was a gritty, physical match. Unfortunately for the Cardinal, Jack Pymm picked up his fifth yellow card of the season at 28:10 which means he’ll have to sit out the regular season finale at Cal. Stanford goalkeeper Rowan Schnebly also picked up a yellow card at 72:36 as he headed over towards a collision at midfield. That was an interesting sequence.
“I thought we created some good chances in the first half but we were just a step off on a couple of things,” Gunn said of the draw. “I think people were just trying too hard a little bit by themselves and we didn’t pass and move and we didn’t figure out the spacing quite right in the first half and look SMU very very good team, we knew it be a really hard game, and I think we were just maybe just a little bit surprised by how well they were playing in the first half.
“I thought second half we came out and we played really really well and we were on top and it looked like we were going to push for the for the game winner, but they held strong and I thought, their defenders, the three center backs defended the box absolutely magnificently tonight. I thought they were fantastic and then on a couple of the counters, I thought their strikers made some super intelligent runs that really caused us trouble.
“And so you know we’re a little bit frustrated that we couldn’t push for the win, but then also I think you know they had chances to go for the win as well. I think you know the biggest frustration was just the time wasting in the game and it’s just like this it just gets a little bit annoying and frustrating, but it’s part of it and so we’re going to keep pushing and pushing and pushing to keep the tempo going and they’re going to keep slowing the game down on the road.”
Stanford outshot SMU 8-5 in the first half and then outshot them 10-8 in the second half, making it an 18-13 edge for the Cardinal. SMU’s goalkeeper Martin Dominguez was fantastic with four saves on the night while Schnebly had one save. Both guys were gritty in the net and actually on the whole, both defenses showed a lot of tenacity to get the shutout. This was Stanford’s fifth straight shutout, so defensively they had a great night, the longest shutout streak since the 2017 team. They just weren’t able to get the goal they needed to win the match.
“They’ve been amazing, you know? They’ve been so tough,” Gunn said of their defense. “So tough to play against and yeah and so as we talk about working, really for them, it’s resting up, and then just sharpening the sword for Friday.”
“Yeah, like you said, would have liked to win,” Stanford senior Zach Bohane said after the match. “But, you’ll take a clean sheet any day of the week and we get those chances back and we’re going to bury them. But puts us in a good spot for Friday. Everything is still in our hands to play for. So, we would have loved to win, but the boys fought hard and earned a draw. So SMU is a great team, so props to them.”
Given it was senior night for both programs this past weekend, there was definitely some emotion. However, both teams know that there’s going to be more matches at Cagan in the postseason, so that definitely softens things somewhat from an emotional standpoint.
“A little emotional,” Bohane said of senior night. “Obviously I love this team so much. I think most programs senior night may be a bit more emotional because it could be their last home game, but I know we’ve got so much more to play at Cagan. So in that, like, it just makes me excited. But it was great to be honored with my best friends. But um yeah, there’s a lot more to play for.”
Looking ahead, both Stanford teams will finish out the regular season with road matches at Cal. On Thursday, October 30th, Stanford women will play at Cal with a kickoff time of 3:00 PM PT on ACCNX. On Friday, October 31st, Stanford men will play at Cal with a kickoff time of 2:00 PM PT on ACCNX.
Stanford men’s soccer leads the ACC with 16 points and will be playing for a league title while Cal is tied for last place with four points. Stanford women’s soccer is tied at the top with Notre Dame with 25 points each and will be playing for at least a share of the league title while Cal is in 7th place with 16 points. Both Cal teams will be fired up to defend their home field, so both Stanford teams will have their work cut out for them. It’ll be interesting to see how things shake out at Edwards Stadium across both days.
“You know, there’s not too much time before,” Gunn said when asked about facing the Golden Bears. “I think we, you know, we…Look, we’ve done all of this hard work to put us in a great situation for the last regular season game. We get to play for a regular season championship and so there’s not too much we have to change. I think just always working on making sure we’re rock solid and tight at the back and then constantly figuring out how can we unlock a defense that’s sometimes quite stubborn?
“This season, we’ve been playing really well both sides of the ball. I think overall we’ve been a little bit, slightly more composed and we’ve moved the ball really really well and as a result we’ve managed to open teams up maybe just a little bit more than last year, scored a few more goals, you know?”
“Yeah, they play a tough soccer similar to us,” Bohane said of the Bears. “They’re not afraid to put it behind teams and make them battle in the air. So their field’s also tough to play at, so it’s going to be tough to adjust, but we’re ready and like I said, if the ACC is in our hands if we win on Friday, so we’ll be up for it. I’m sure they’ll be up for it, too. There’s a lot on the line, so should be a fun game.”
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