Tomas Hilliard-Arce took five shots, two on goal, and converted on one of them. That’s all it took for the eighth-ranked Stanford men’s soccer team to remain undefeated in Pac-12 Conference as the Cardinal edged visiting Oregon State, 1-0, on Sunday.
Hilliard-Arce scored his third goal of the season 20 minutes into the second half, a header that began with a free kick. Adam Mosharrafa had his kick bounce off the post. Charlie Wehan collected the rebound and quickly got it to Tanner Beason on the right side, who then got it in the air for Hilliard-Arce.
“It’s a great ball in by Tanner and a great finish,” Stanford coach Jeremy Gunn said. “The idea with your team is you want your strikers and attackers to score, but if they don’t you want to contribute on set pieces and that was seconds off a set piece. You want to find different ways of winning and that’s what did it today.”
Sunday’s shutout was the eighth of the season and the Cardinal lowered its team goals against average to 0.53.
It was a dominating 1-0 performance. The Cardinal (10-2-1, 4-0-1 Pac-12) outshot OSU 23-8 (9-2 on goal), had a 13-3 edge in corners and forced the Beavers’ Gage Rogers into a career-high eight saves.
“We’re playing against very tough opponents,” Gunn said. “We’ve watched Oregon State and it’s been incredible that they’ve been in some games where they’ve been clearly on top, done everything to win the game and managed to come out second. We played great and put them under untold pressure. We can complain about not putting them away, but the thing is we played some great soccer, created chances and our defense held strong again. These games are tough so whenever you move on with a good performance, let’s take it.”
Oregon State’s best opportunity game in the 46th minute when Jalen Markey’s shot nearly snuck between the legs of Nico Corti, but Corti snagged it before it crossed the line. It was the redshirt senior’s seventh solo shutout of the season, which is tied for 12th in program history.
Amir Bashti almost put the Cardinal up a pair in the 81st minute, but he pounded back-to-back shots off Rogers from inside the box and Foster Langsdorf’s final volley in the three-attempt sequence was stopped OSU’s sprawling keeper.
“In some games you don’t have all the chances we did today,” Gunn said. “We don’t get worried about the past. Instead we tell our team to look to the future, keep playing the ball, keep moving it and they’ll break eventually.”
It’s quick turnaround for the Cardinal, which leaves Wednesday for the Pacific Northwest and a pair of matches at Washington and Oregon State.
By Palo Alto Online Sports/Stanford Athletics
By Palo Alto Online Sports/Stanford Athletics
By Palo Alto Online Sports/Stanford Athletics