On Wednesday, Stanford men’s soccer defeated Notre Dame 3-2 at home in the first round of the ACC tournament as a last second goal ended the match in regulation. Jackson Kiil, Will Reilly, and Dylan Hooper scored for Stanford while Mitch Ferguson and Matthew Roou scored for Notre Dame. Stanford goalkeeper Rowan Schnebly picked up the win in the net for the Cardinal while Notre Dame goalkeeper Collin Travasos was awarded the loss.
BOX SCORE: Notre Dame at Stanford-Wednesday, November 6th
“It’s a crazy game of soccer,” Stanford head coach Jeremy Gunn said after the match. “We’ve been playing well lately and sometimes you have to create your own luck and then sometimes you are a little bit unlucky. And to have a penalty called against us where it’s one of those ball to hand situations, it’s just really unlucky because we’ve not done anything bad in the play. The ball hit Dylan in the hands.
“And so at that moment, it’s pretty easy to feel like woe is me. What happened though, we kept playing, we kept asking questions, and we scored a fantastic goal to equalize. We moved the ball beautifully from left to right, a great delivery from Will Cleary and a fantastic header from Jackson and so that was fantastic by the team at a time when we could have been asking questions of ourselves rather than the opponent.
“And then second half, I thought we played really really well. I thought we looked like the more likely team. We had lots of possession, we had lots of deliveries, but it was just tough to break down a stubborn defense and it looked more like we were gonna be the ones creating chances and scoring the go-ahead goal.
“So when we get a penalty, ironically for another handball, I felt we deserved that break and we deserved the chance and Will Reilly buried it, so fantastic nerves of steel in that moment. And then the clock is running down and we think it’s job done. Obviously it’s one of those calls that doesn’t normally get called, but it was called, so we learned from it, and to give up a goal with how many seconds left is just crazy and then to score a goal at the end is even crazier. Not sure how else you describe it.”
The match got off to a quiet start as not much happened for a little while. It wasn’t until the 17:19 mark that Stanford finally got their first corner kick while Notre Dame’s first corner kick came at 20:41. At 21:54, Stanford would be called for a hand ball, giving Notre Dame a golden opportunity to score as it set up a penalty kick. Matthew Roou would take the kick and buried the ball in the bottom left of the net to make it a 1-0 lead for the Irish.
Stanford would then get corner kicks at 23:18 and 27:46, but neither would lead to a goal. Stanford would soon get on the board though as Jackson Kiil was able to find the top left of the goal off an assist from Will Cleary, that tied it up 1-1 at the 33:30 mark. Stanford would have a corner kick at 38:11 but wasn’t able to score again off that. It would remain tied 1-1 at halftime.
Early in the second half at 47:36, there was a scary moment as Stanford midfielder Dylan Groeneveld was going for a header near the goal post and ended up colliding with the goalpost as his head hit the post. He appeared to have been knocked out cold and was taken away on a stretcher as the paramedics came and took him away in an ambulance. Fortunately, Jeremy Gunn was able to provide a positive update about Groeneveld’s condition after the match.
“I’ve talked to the doctors and Dylan is doing great,” Gunn said with relief. “It’s obviously, he hit the goal post and he had a concussion, but he’s doing okay now. So we’re happy to report that. Obviously it was quite worrying.”
After a five minute warming up period following Groeneveld’s departure, play resumed and Stanford had corner kicks at 50:36 and 51:44 but wasn’t able to score off those kicks. Things would remain tied for a while without any corner kicks until finally at 84:54, Notre Dame was called for a handball, giving Stanford a penalty kick. Will Reilly would take the kick for the Cardinal and find the bottom left of the net, making it a 2-1 lead for Stanford.
At this point, it looked like 2-1 would be the final score, but at 89:51 Rowan Schnebly was called for time wasting. This gave Notre Dame a free kick within striking range of the goal. Mitch Ferguson was able to score for the Irish as he found the bottom left of the goal off his right foot. That tied up the match 2-2 with under ten seconds to go.
“Yeah, it’s a time wasting and so the rules are you’re allowed six seconds with the ball and you have to release it,” Gunn said. “And so the referee is one hundred percent within the letter of the law to give the free kick. It’s just normally goalkeepers take liberties and get away it.”
With overtime looking like a certainty, Stanford defender Dylan Hooper miraculously found the top right of the goal off his left foot on a shot that he fired from midfield. The ball went over the head of Collin Travasos and into the net to beat the buzzer as only one second was left on the clock. It was like a half-court shot in basketball. As a result, Stanford escaped with a 3-2 win, leaving the crowd at Cagan in complete shock.
“Yeah, so I mean, the last goal, right before I went, I mean, we were just shocked that they called that indirect free kick,” Hooper said of his goal. “And so with twelve seconds left, I just decided I just like gotta hit it no matter what. So I just beat the first guy and just had to hit it and hope that it went in and it just did…In the ACC tournament, the last couple seconds to win the game is probably the highlight of my career, honestly.”
“Oh my goodness. I’ve seen a lot,” Gunn said of where this match ranks in his all-time soccer memories. “I’ve been in a 7-6 game, I’ve been in all sorts of games, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen like that at the end of the game where it’s a crazy goal for us to give away and then an even crazier goal for us to score.”
For Stanford, this is a huge win. They stay alive in the ACC tournament and more importantly pick up a much needed win to improve their RPI a bit and get some positive momentum going after what has been a rough few matches for them. The way they won also makes it all the more emotional for them both with the way the match ended and also Groeneveld going down.
“Yeah, it feels really good,” Hooper said of getting back in the win column. “You know, we’ve been struggling the last few weeks, but working really hard off the field, working really hard on the field just hasn’t really swung our way. So hopefully this starts a streak of wins that we can keep going in the postseason.
“I’ll just say happy we got the win. Hoping that Dylan Groeneveld is okay. We were kind of hoping and talking that this game is like for him. He put his body on the line, so we gotta do everything we can to kind of get it for him and now just looking forward to the next game, I think it’s Clemson. So yeah, gonna be excited to go there and beat the Clemson Tigers.”
Up next for Stanford is an ACC tournament quarterfinal match at Clemson on Sunday at 11:00 AM PT on ACC Network.
“We’re always looking forward to playing and people always talk about outcome goals, but I like to say to the team let’s play as many games of soccer as we can do,” Gunn said of facing Clemson again. “And so we get to play another great opponent, another great game Sunday, and so we’ll be excited to play again.”
CardinalSportsReport.com on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, & X (Twitter): @StanfordRivals
Ben Parker on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, & X (Twitter): @slamdunk406
Email: slamdunk406@yahoo.com
