On Thursday, No. 2 Stanford men’s soccer fell to San Francisco on the road by a final score of 2-0. The Dons scored one goal in each half while the Cardinal were unable to get on the scoreboard. David Raphael scored in the first half for the Dons while Brayden Beason scored in the second half. Eric Waltz was the winning goalkeeper for the Dons with zero saves and zero goals allowed while Rowan Schnebly was the losing goalkeeper for the Cardinal with three saves and two goals allowed. San Francisco improves to 4-5-3 overall while Stanford falls to 8-2-3 overall.
BOX SCORE: Stanford at San Francisco-Thursday, October 17th
“Well, just very disappointed in our first half performance today,” Stanford head coach Jeremy Gunn said after the match. “I thought we were second best with our attitude. That’s not who we are. That’s not acceptable. I thought USF, we know they’re a good team. I knew we were going to have a tough game tonight, but it didn’t appear that way from the team.
“And so, we allowed a team to get excited in the first half and then we pummeled them second half but give up a second goal on a night when we could have had five goals. But in the end, I think we got what we deserved tonight. And so, certainly hope that the players can regroup and reset and come back with our normal attitude to the game.”
Stanford was never able to get into a good rhythm in this match. They had corner kicks at 21:53, 30:58, and 44:02 in the first half, but they weren’t able to score off those chances. As for San Francisco, they scored at 34:00 as David Raphael found the top left of the goal off his right foot thanks to an assist from Gabriel Bracken Serra. The goal came shortly after a Stanford throw in. The lone corner kick for the Dons of the match came at 40:32, which didn’t lead to a goal. It would be a 1-0 lead for the Dons at halftime.
In the second half, Stanford had five corner kicks at 46:32, 57:31, 67:13, 70:15, and 82:80, unable to capitalize on those chances. Stanford had eight corner kicks the entire match, possessing a huge advantage in that department, but they just weren’t able to score. As for San Francisco, they added a second goal at 77:15 as Brayden Beason found the bottom left of the goal off his left foot thanks to an assist from Bracken Serra, who had two assists on the night.
To add insult to injury, before the match ended, Stanford forward Jackson Kiil picked up a red card at 88:25, which ejected him from the match and has him suspended for the next match. That capped off a very frustrating night for the Cardinal.
“We didn’t finish chances,” Gunn said. “But the thing is when you’re a goal down and they can get bodies behind the ball and they’re excited to defend and they’re working really hard, the game just becomes tougher. It’s that simple.”
For Stanford, all they can do is move on from this, learn from it, and bounce back. They can’t let this loss fester. If there is one thing they can take a bit of solace in it’s the fact that San Francisco is undefeated at home this season, so they’re a tough out on their homefield. The Dons had a great crowd out and created a tough atmosphere to win in. Still, Stanford should be kicking themselves for not playing better.
“I’m sure they’ll respond,” Gunn said of his players. “I’m just extremely disappointed. I’m sure the players are gonna be deeply disappointed in themselves tonight. Not too much to say.”
As for San Francisco, this is a huge win. To beat the number two team in the nation has to feel good. While Stanford didn’t play up their best level, San Francisco still deserves a lot of credit for coming out on top and playing as well as they did. They had a great energy, belief, and fight. They played the better match and deserved the win.
Up next for Stanford is a home match on Monday against Pacific. That will begin at 7:00 PM PT on ACCNX.
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