On Thursday, #6 Stanford women’s soccer defeated San Francisco 4-0 in their home opener on The Farm. Freshman midfielder Joelle Jung (7:01), sophomore midfielder Jasmine Aikey (29:16), fifth-year midfielder Maya Doms (31:36), and freshman forward Erica Grilione (76:52) scored for the Cardinal. Ryan Campbell (2 saves) picked up the win at goalkeeper for the Cardinal playing the first half while Haley Craig played the second half. Kira Ybarra (7 saves & 4 goals allowed) was awarded the loss for San Francisco. Stanford improves to 3-0 on the season while San Francisco falls to 0-2.
BOX SCORE: San Francisco at Stanford-Thursday, August 24th
“Great team victory,” Stanford head coach Paul Ratcliffe said after the match. “Created a lot of chances, some good soccer, and got a lot of players playing time.”
This match was one-way traffic for the Cardinal from the jump. After a goal kick from Kira Ybarra at the 6:39 mark, Joelle Jung found the top right of the goal off her right foot at the 7:01 mark as Nya Harrison and Jasmine Aikey got credited with the assist. 1-0 lead for the Cardinal.
Stanford continued to put tremendous pressure on San Francisco, attempting nine more shots before finally scoring again at the 29:16 mark thanks to Jasmine Aikey finding the top center of the goal off her right foot. Maya Doms was credited with the assist. It was now a 2-0 lead for the Cardinal.
“I think the ball came down in the box and Doms was fighting for it and I knew I just had to be ready and it popped out right in front of me,” Aikey recalled about her goal. “And a pretty easy tap in from there. But, yeah Doms’ hard work and Andrea’s cross.”
Thanks to a handball called against San Francisco at the 31:36 mark, Doms attempted a penalty kick and found the top right of the net, making it a 3-0 lead for the Cardinal. Stanford would not score any more goals the rest of the half, making it a 3-0 match at halftime.
“Yeah, we wanted to start fast,” Ratcliffe said. “It was something we spoke about at the beginning of the game. We’ve been a little bit sluggish in the beginning of games, so it’s been a point of focus that we start faster and I thought tonight we started pretty fast and were on the front foot.”
“I think it was a don’t take your foot off the gas moment,” Aikey said of Ratcliffe’s message to the team at halftime. “I think we did that and we can get even better going forward with that.”
The second half got off to a slower start for Stanford as it was still a 3-0 lead for them at the 74:18 mark after seven corner kicks. They were getting plenty of opportunities to further expand their lead but weren’t able to do so. Finally, at the 76:52 mark, Erica Grilione scored for the Cardinal to make it a 4-0 lead as she found the top left of the goal off her left foot. Lumi Kostmayer was credited with the assist.
Stanford went on to win 4-0 as Grilione’s goal was the lone goal scored in the second half. After an explosive first half, things quieted down in the second half, but it was still a strong victory overall.
“Yeah, we have a lot of weapons,” Ratcliffe said of having four different players score. “So goals are coming from all different areas and the team is doing a really good job of sharing the ball and creating opportunities for each other. So, yeah really proud of the whole group.”
“I think we’re really putting things together,” Aikey added. “Especially heading into our second week of actual play. I was really happy. We started off faster than our last games, which is something we’ve been working on and overall just as a team I think we’re really heading in the right direction.”
When looking at the box score, there’s not much for Stanford to be upset about defensively. San Francisco had five shots on goal and wasn’t able to find the net once. The Cardinal only allowed nine shots in total, so really there weren’t very many chances for the Dons.
“Yeah, we’re really fortunate to have two amazing goalkeepers,” Ratcliffe said. “The team and staff really trust Ryan and Haley. Haley made some tremendous saves, Ryan’s been fantastic all year. So, we’re really lucky to have two incredible goalkeepers.”
“Our goalkeepers, they’re the heart of the team,” Aikey added. “They’re really solid, they’re amazing, and our center backs, outside backs, always put in a great shift and they’re just so solid. So, to have them behind me I’m never nervous. It’s great.”
Offensively is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, they scored four goals, which is a solid amount. On the other hand, they had 33 shots and 11 shots on goal. This is a match where the Cardinal probably should have tacked on at least a couple more goals. This is something they know they need to work on.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Ratcliffe admitted when asked if they would have liked more goals. “I’m happy with how we’re creating chances and the collective team effort creating those chances, but we need to capitalize on more of them. So our percentage of capitalizing on chances needs to go up so we need more repetition of finishing.
“It’s still early season, so I think we need a lot more repetition and continue and I’m hoping midseason and later in the season, we’ll be scoring more of those chances. But right now, we look a little bit rusty in front of goal. I’m still proud we scored four, but we should be scoring when I think we had at least probably thirty shots, we gotta be scoring more than four in my eyes.”
“You know, I think as a team, we realize that the percentage needs to go up for sure,” Aikey said. “And we talked about it. I think just after practice getting more reps in and I think we’re gonna do that as a team and then hopefully as the weeks go on, we’ll get the percentage up.”
Jasmine Aikey as always had a strong performance in this one. She’s coming off an impressive freshman season and looks like she’s on track to have an even stronger sophomore year. She’s been working hard to improve her game and it showed in this match.
“I think for me, I’m always focusing on my finishing because I think that’s something you can always improve on,” Aikey said. “So I’m going to continue working on that. And also, as the nine, like my hold up play. Something I’m continuing to work on.”
After a road trip with wins at San Diego (4-0) and UC Irvine (2-1), it feels really good for Stanford to win their home opener. They really got tested in their victory at UC Irvine and feel like they learned a lot from that experience.
“I mean, resiliency,” Aikey said of what they most learned. “It’s not always going to be easy. You know at home, usually we have the crowd, but you know, in away games we don’t have that. So, kinda learning how to create our own energy. Something that we can continue to bring with our next games.”
Up next for Stanford is a home match on Sunday against St. Mary’s. That will begin at 5:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Networks.
“Yeah, Theresa [Romagnolo] is a good friend of mine, she coached here at Stanford with me a few years back now,” Ratcliffe said of St. Mary’s. “So I have a ton of respect for Theresa and St. Mary’s College was my first head coaching job. So, a lot of respect for that university. So, I think it will be a really good game and another good test for us.”
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