Recap: Stanford Men’s Soccer comes back to beat Boston College in ACC tourney
On Wednesday, Stanford men’s soccer defeated Boston College in the first round of the ACC tournament by a final score of 4-2. Stanford senior midfielder Will Cleary led the way for the Cardinal with his first career brace, scoring goals at 38:00 and 53:35. Freshman midfielder Jack Pymm (45:48) and freshman forward Tomo Allen (88:15) also scored for the Cardinal. Boston College scored the first two goals of the match as sophomore forward Michael Asare (12:02 & 24:11) had a brace for the Eagles.
Stanford redshirt junior Rowan Schnebly was the winning goalkeeper for the Cardinal with five saves and two goals allowed while Boston College freshman Andrej Borak was the losing goalkeeper for the Eagles with eight saves and four goals allowed. Both keepers played the full 90:00.
BOX SCORE: Boston College at Stanford-Wednesday, November 5th
“I mean, it’s soccer’s about moments and chances and you know they created a couple of great chances early on and so to be in a two-nil down hole, that’s a big hole,” Stanford head coach Jeremy Gunn said after the match. “But I thought we were composed and the players just kept believing in what we needed to do and I think it was it was huge to get the goal before the half so that we could enter the second half knowing that we only had to score the one goal to be right in it you know, and then you you’re always in it from then on.
“And so getting the early second half goal was a huge boost and then from then on you know, we were always creating chances, always looking to score more goals but again it’s soccer. They forced us into a couple of really good saves as well and so in the end it had to be a great game to watch for the fans. Lots of chances, lots of goal mouth action and pleased that the team just continued to keep their nerve and keep playing well and in the end I think we’re definitely deserved winners, but on another night it can end up very very different.”
Boston College got off to a hot start in this match. After swapping corner kicks at 7:09 (Stanford) and 9:10 (Boston College), Asare scored his first goal for the Eagles at 12:02 as he found the bottom left goal off his right foot. Marci Killeen got the assist. That made it a 1-0 lead for the Eagles.
Stanford would then look like they were about to respond as they got corner kicks at 13:33, 13:52, and 19:45. However, the second goal of the match once again came from Asare as he found the top right of the goal off his right foot unassisted at 24:11. Down 0-2, Stanford had their biggest deficit of the season.
Rather than panicking, Stanford continued to trust the process, immediately getting a corner kick at 24:57 after Zach Bohane fired a shot that was saved by Borak. Stanford would then get corner kicks at 28:06, 29:49, 30:44, and 35:35. Aidan Farwell (Boston College) and Jack Pymm (Stanford) also got yellow cards during this time frame. Farwell at 29:46 and Pymm at 32:12.
Finally, at 38:00, Stanford got on the scoreboard as Cleary found the bottom right of the goal off his right foot. That made it 2-1. Stanford would get one more corner kick at 43:06, but 2-1 would be the score at halftime. Down by one goal as opposed to two, Stanford felt a lot better.
“Yeah, so, I mean, the left side was doing really well and beating their players,” Cleary recalled of his first goal. “So, it gave me time to join in on the weak side and Shane cut inside and played a nice ball across, skipped through everybody. I was able to take a touch and just put it on target. So, great ball from Shane. And yeah, you never know what happens on a slick field, so luckily it bounced straight through.”
“The biggest one was just remaining composed,” Gunn said of his message at halftime. “You know, we’d had a lot of good first half chances and we didn’t really have to change too much. We just had to make sure that while we were pressing for goals, we backed up play well enough to not allow any opening counter attacks. And we, you know, we still gave up a couple that we didn’t want to give up, but overall it was just, keep our composure, don’t need to panic, the goals will come if we keep asking questions and I think it was a great one for us to score the early goal for sure.”
Stanford would immediately get to work in the second half with a corner kick at 45:16. Off that chance, they would score at 45:48 as Pymm found the bottom right of the goal off his left foot. Now it was tied 2-2 and Stanford was right back in the match.
Stanford’s next corner kick came at 52:48. Right after that, Cleary found the top left of the goal thanks to an assist from Fletcher Bank. That made it 3-2. With the lead, Stanford was feeling more confident, but they felt like they needed to get one more goal.
“Oh, that’s great for him,” Gunn said of Cleary’s brace. “You know, I think he, no he got into good positions and you know, we can score from every position as we’ve shown this season and no, just great finishes. The first one’s a good strike, the second one, he might be, I think it was a head and a shoulder. But at night, you know, he got into good attacking positions and that’s the main thing, if you’re assertive, you’re aggressive, and you want to get into scoring positions, then it gives yourselves half a chance and that’s what he did in the game, which was wonderful for him, it was a huge boost to the team.”
“Yeah, I mean, Fletch had an incredible, incredible game today,” Cleary said of Bank. “And, yeah, we were hunting for that goal. And so I was staying up and I have so much trust in the ball of Fletch’s feet that I know he’s not gonna lose it, so I stay up and not have to run back on defense right away. And luckily, he put in a fantastic ball and I was able to just attack it and put it away.”
Right after at 54:40, Jack Burkhardt picked up a yellow card for Boston College. Boston College would then get a corner kick at 59:21 after which CJ Williams fired a shot to the bottom left of the goal for the Eagles only for it to be saved by Schnebly.
Neither team would get a corner kick the rest of the match, but one more yellow card would come at 84:53 as Alex Chow picked one up for Stanford for dissent. At this point, it looked like 3-2 might be the final score or that maybe Boston College would find a way to tie things up. Instead, Stanford found their fourth goal at 88:15 as Allen found the bottom right of the goal off an assist from Bank, his second assist of the night. That made it 4-2, which ended up being the final score.
“No, he’s been playing great,” Gunn said of Allen. “I think, what we’re excited about is, the position we want to be in with our attackers is to have attackers that are frustrated and chomping at the bit. And I think tonight, all of the attacking players contributed in all different ways…And at the moment, I think we’ve got lots of attacking players that can be all arguing that they should be starting the game, which is exactly where we want them.”
For Stanford, this is a huge win. They stay alive in the conference tournament and also bounce back from a disappointing loss to Cal. What made the win all the more impressive is they came back from down 0-2. Rather than giving up, they kept fighting and in the end got rewarded.
“Yeah, I mean, it was definitely a tough loss,” Cleary said reflecting on the loss to Cal. “Especially because of the implications of it, not winning the ACC regular season, without getting a win there. So, it was tough, but we did a really good job of just moving forward and focusing on this game coming out. Coming out strong and just having that belief and trust in ourselves and in our team that when there’s time on the clock, you know, we’re always in the game…It’s tough, especially in a playoff game to keep that positive mindset and that mentality, but we just have so much faith in each other and in ourselves because of the training we’ve done.”
Up next for Stanford is a home match against SMU in the quarterfinal round of the conference tournament. They tied 0-0 last time they met earlier this season on The Farm, so in many ways, this match will feel like a continuation of something that was already started. That will be on Sunday, November 9th at 5:00 PM PT on ACCN.
“Yeah, very good team,” Gunn said of the Mustangs. “I think there are many things that we could have done just a little fraction better in the last game. And so we’ll be excited to see them again and I think we’re probably both teams look at that game thinking it’s unfinished business, so it’s a perfect matchup really…Obviously the game came quickly this week, and so now I think being at home for Sunday, I think we can really gather momentum, get a great crowd out, really push for it, and create a really exciting event that we’re all excited to look forward to whereas this game came very quickly for us.”
“Yeah, I mean, they’re a great team,” Cleary added. “And we’ll watch that game back for sure and look for things, little tweaks that we can do to make sure we find the back of the net. Most importantly, we need to get another clean sheet against them, which we did well last time, but just a little bit more composure in front of goal and we’ll put the ball in the back of the net.”
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