Oct. 3, 2010
STANFORD, Calif. - Christen Press and Lindsay Taylor scored within 1 minute, 39 seconds of each other in the second half to lift No. 1 Stanford to a 2-0 victory over No. 13 Santa Clara in a match the Cardinal dominated Sunday.
Stanford (9-0-2) outshot the Broncos, 26-1, allowing only a harmless attempt by Kendra Perry in the 47th minute that went far wide of the goal, to tie a school record for fewest shots allowed. It's the eighth time Stanford has held an opponent to one shot, and the first since Sept. 27, 2008, against Saint Mary's.
Press, the national scoring leader, scored for the 14th time this season, on a short header at 77:26 after being served by overlapping defender Rachel Quon. It was the 59th goal of Press' career, tying her with Sarah Rafanelli (1990-93) for No. 1 on Stanford's all-time list.
Moments later, Lindsay Taylor drew a foul just outside the penalty area and struck a free kick outside the Santa Clara wall and inside the right post at 78:55 for her fourth goal of the season.
For Stanford, which moved to No. 1 in the NSCAA coaches' poll on Tuesday, the result was another impressive performance in a recent streak in which the Cardinal has outscored its past six opponents, 25-2, and earned four shutouts.
Coach Paul Ratcliffe said he sees the team growing in confidence - reflected in enormous advantages in time of possession - and hopes the team realizes how good it is.
"It's a humble group," he said. "And I want them to be humble - you've got to earn every win. But, hopefully, they're going to have even more of a presence about them as time goes on, because they're winning against strong teams. Santa Clara's a strong opponent and it was a very convincing result at the end."
As the match developed, the Cardinal adjusted by inserting a faster attacking combinations. Camille Levin moved to defense, Marjani Hing-Glover replaced Levin at forward, and outside backs Quon and Levin were instructed to push forward into the box.
"At the beginning, we try to assess the game and see what they're giving us and what we need to do in order to be productive," Quon said. "Today, Santa Clara was kind of sitting in, getting as many players as they could back to defend. We needed more numbers to help out in the attack."
Stanford outshot Santa Clara, 12-0, in the first half, but had no clear chances. The Cardinal realized that with so little space in the box, it would have to fight for every chance it got and be creative in its methods.
"That was the halftime talk basically," Ratcliffe said. "We need to create luck for ourselves. That means being aggressive in the box, getting in the box, and serving in the box. And I thought we did that. The goal was a great example. It ended up being a beautiful goal."
Ratcliffe told them he expected the winner to be ugly, the result of some mad scramble. Instead, the play was set up beautifully, first by Teresa Noyola, who passed to Quon, who served it into Press.
Stanford had come close in the second half, except for a pair of close-range kick saves by Santa Clara's U.S. Under-20 national-team goalkeeper Bianca Henninger, on shots by Press.
"Patience," Quon said of Stanford's mentality. "We knew we were going to keep getting chances, and that one ball would pop out and we'd put it away. Christen did a pretty good job of that."
Press has scored a goal in five consecutive matches (nine altogether) and has a goal or assist in the past 10.
Santa Clara (7-3-2) had not allowed more than one goal all season, until Sunday. "We finally broke the ice," Ratcliffe said. "And once we got one, I knew we'd get another."
Stanford extended its home winning streak to 27 and its home unbeaten streak to 31. In addition, the victory, before 1,201 at Laird Q. Cagan Stadium, enabled the Cardinal to complete its fourth consecutive regular-season nonconference home season undefeated, going 19-0 since a 2006 defeat to Santa Clara.
The defending Pacific-10 champion Cardinal begins conference play Friday against USC at the Los Angeles Coliseum and plays at UCLA on Sunday in a rematch of Stanford's 2-1 overtime victory in the 2009 NCAA College Cup semifinals.
Stanford returns home Oct. 15 against Washington State at 5 p.m.