Recap: No. 3 Stanford Men’s Soccer takes care of business against Virginia Tech
On Sunday, No. 3 Stanford men’s soccer defeated Virginia Tech 3-1. Jack Pymm (33:16), Zach Bohane (47:02), and Fletcher Bank (81:37) found the back of the net for the Cardinal while Alex Perez was credited for the Hokies’ lone goal at 61:48. Rowan Schnebly was the winning goalkeeper for the Cardinal with one goal allowed and five saves while Sam Joseph was the losing goalkeeper for the Hokies with three goals allowed and four saves. Stanford improves to 7-1-1 overall and 2-1 in the ACC while Virginia Tech falls to 2-2-3 overall and 0-2-1 in the ACC.
BOX SCORE: Virginia Tech at Stanford-Sunday, September 21st
“Phenomenal performance,” Stanford head coach Jeremy Gunn said after the match. “I thought we were irrepressible at times. We came out with such a great purpose. You saw when Virginia Tech got on the ball and had a little bit of time and space, what great soccer players they have, but I just thought collectively we were just so much tonight that our pressing was so intense it was so difficult for them to get out that we gave them far fewer look on attacks than what they would normally get and then on the ball I thought we were brilliant. It made for a really exciting game because they were willing to play a lot of people high and we were willing to attack with a lot of people as well. So the poor referee was doing doggies tonight and so you know and honestly we had so many great chances as well, which is really exciting.
“Don’t expect to finish every chance but it’s very very exciting when we see how many chances we’re creating in those moments and you know we’re we were at 2-1 and it’s game on and that’s the type of game in soccer where we’re clearly ahead, we clearly had all the chances and you can end up at 2-2 and so I thought were fantastic to continue to push, to continue to look for the third goal and continue to be aggressive and assertive. So really really proud of the performance tonight and the team can be very very pleased with a great night’s work.”
Stanford got their first corner kick of the match at 8:21 before getting corner kicks at 10:45 and 11:53. While none of those led to goals, the Cardinal were doing a nice job of applying pressure early on the Hokies. Virginia Tech then got a corner kick at 19:05 after which Stanford got corner kicks at 26:59 and 27:58. Stanford’s aggressive play would pay off with a goal at 33:16 as Pymm found the bottom right of the goal off his left foot thanks to an assist from Bohane. That made it a 1-0 lead for the Cardinal.
Stanford would get a corner kick at 43:27 but didn’t score off that opportunity. As a result, it was a 1-0 lead for the Cardinal at halftime as they were outshooting Virginia Tech 9-3 with a 6-1 advantage in corner kicks. All momentum was on the Cardinal’s side.
Stanford continued their aggressive play in the second half with a corner kick at 46:42. Off that corner kick, Stanford would find their second goal of the night at 47:02 as Bohane found the top right of the goal off an assist from Joshua Partal. That made it a 2-0 lead for the Cardinal.
Stanford then got a corner kick at 49:05, though they weren’t able to score off of it. Virginia Tech really needed to reverse momentum if they were to get back in the match. Virginia Tech would start to get things going a bit with a corner kick at 58:06 and then another corner kick at 61:31. That second corner kick of the half led to a goal for the Hokies at 61:48 as Perez found the top left of the goal amid a sea of players, making it hard to identify who scored the goal. That made it a 2-1 match with plenty of time for a chance to tie.
Things started to get a little more chippy down the stretch as Alex Chow picked up a yellow card for the Cardinal at 73:56. After a few more fouls, Stanford got three straight corner kicks at 79:56, 80:28, and 81:04. At 81:38, Stanford was rewarded for their aggression as Bank found the bottom left of the goal off his left foot at 81:38. That made it a 3-1 lead for the Cardinal.
“Yeah, I mean, I saw on that corner kick, I’m supposed to go on the keeper man,” Bank recalled of his goal. “I didn’t really have a man on me, so I was worried about being offside, so I did come across a little bit and then Grover was able to get a flick on it and it hit off one of the Virginia Tech defenders and then I was just able to poach it home. Kind of fell right to me and I’m just grateful I was there and I was able to seal it.”
From there, Stanford would win the match 3-1 as Virginia Tech was unable to find the back of the net for a second time. Virginia Tech battled hard, but Stanford showed why they are one of the top teams in the nation. They did a great job of keeping the pressure on and finding that third goal.
“Fantastic, yeah,” Gunn said of getting that third goal. “And you know we threatened to score another goal all night long, you know we had some great chances and so yeah, but 2-1 the game could go either way, you know it’s a boxing match, what were we were six rounds to one, but you know you can still let another goal and then suddenly you’re tying a game that you should be on deservingly and so to get the insurance goal at the end is really big and I think it underlines the mentality that we have that we wanna go after teams, we wanna be the aggressor, we wanna be exciting going forward and we’re all of that and some tonight I think.”
“Yeah, Virginia Tech is a good team and they got back in the game,” Bank said. “I mean, when we went up 2-0, it felt really good and then obviously off a set piece they got right back in it, so you know, 15 minutes to go, they’re right on our doorstep. You’re kind of questioning, you know, are they going to get the equalizer? And we knew if we got one, that we could really kill the game off and I think it did in the final minutes.”
While Stanford’s offense was fantastic, their defense was also really impressive. Virginia Tech had only six shots on the night, yet five of those six required a save from Schnebly. Schnebly did a great job of keeping the Hokies out of the net. He wishes he could have that goal allowed back I’m sure, but on the whole, he had a superb evening manning the cage.
“Yeah, and some of the other games we’ve let goals and then he’s not had much to do and now he had to make some good saves,” Gunn said of Schnebly. “Look that is a very very good team, they’ve had one of the toughest schedules in the country so far and they’ve been playing against some amazing teams and getting great results, and so that’s a great performance against a very very good team tonight. I can’t speak highly enough of their team and as a result really proud of how we handled them tonight.”
What made this match especially fun for Stanford was it being the ACC home opener. With students back on campus, there was a good turnout under the lights at Cagan. The team no doubt fed off that energy.
“It’s awesome,” Gunn said of the fan support. “You know, you’re coming out and you’re warming up, and there’s already people here excited and so it just made for great energy and obviously we’re really pleased with the performance and the result, but it’s an exciting evening and we hope to get everybody back here the next few games as well.”
“Yeah, I mean, it was really easy to get up for this game with the students back on campus, first ACC home game,” Bank added. “We’ve gotten some momentum in our past few results, so it was just an exciting night. The pitch is beautiful under the lights in Cagan. It was just a really fun atmosphere and I think we saw it from the first minute we were at it with that atmosphere behind us.”
Up next for Stanford is a home match against Oregon State on Wednesday. That will begin at 7:00 PM PT on ACCNX.
“They’re having a great season, so it’ll be another tough game,” Gunn said of facing the Beavers. “We have, you know I think we’ve played more games than anybody else in the country at this point in time and that’ll remain so for this week. We’ve got Oregon State Wednesday, then another game Sunday and so there’s no respite and we’ll be resting positive about the result and then regrouping getting ready to go again.”
“Yeah, it’s really cool,” Bank said of facing a former Pac-12 foe. “I mean, going up to Corvallis and playing up there and then having them here, always good battles, they’re a very good team, a lot of good international players, they play great soccer, so it’ll be a fun test and it’s awesome that it’s under the lights at Cagan.”
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