Oct. 12, 2012
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Stanford Men's Soccer fought through a driving rain to a 2-2 draw with Oregon State Friday night , coming away with a key away point in Corvallis.
The Cardinal (5-5-1, 2-1-1 Pac-12, seven points) remains in third place on the Pac-12 table with seven points, three back of Washington and five back of leader UCLA. Stanford now heads to Seattle for Sunday's 12 p.m. contest at Washington. The match will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks.
"It was a thrilling game of Pac-12 soccer, we started the game very brightly and were very comfortable through the first half," said Stanford head coach Jeremy Gunn. "I was really pleased with how the team played tonight. It was a great performance. We come away with a tie in the end even though it really felt for most of the game that we'd done enough to win it. These games are always going to be tough competitions."
Senior forward Adam Jahn bagged a brace to increase his team-leading goal total to seven. His first of the game came from the penalty spot in the 59th minute and he followed 10 minutes later with a well-placed strike after Eric Verso played him ahead.
"Adam played another great game tonight," Gunn noted. "He's been leading the line well for us all season long and I thought he showed great composure on the penalty and scored a great strike on his second goal."
The teams went into halftime scoreless although the Cardinal outshot the Beavers (6-4-2, 1-2-1 Pac-12, four points) by a 5-2 margin. The offense would pick up in the second half despite the unfavorable conditions, with Zach Batteer earning the Cardinal a penalty after being brought down in the box by an Oregon State defender. Jahn would step up for the spot kick and calmly buried it past Beaver keeper Matt Bersano.
Ten minutes later Jahn would double the Cardinal's advantage, playing through from Verso and coolly finishing past Bersano.
The two-goal advantage would be short-lived, however, as a Stanford foul in the box would give Oregon State a penalty of its own, which Will Seymore finished to halve the Cardinal lead in the 71st minute.
The woodwork would come to the rescue of each goalie nearly 10 minutes later. Batteer saw a strong effort bounce off the post in the 80th minute while just over a minute later Oregon State's Khiry Shelton would rattle the crossbar with his effort.
Stanford almost re-doubled its advantage in the 84th minute as Bobby Edwards' corner kick found the head of Hunter Gorskie but the senior's effort was smartly saved by Bersano to keep the Cardinal at bay.
The Cardinal defense continued to turn back the Beavers' push until Oregon State broke through for the equalizer in the 88th minute. Shelton played a ball through for Alex Penny who beat Cardinal keeper Drew Hutchins to the left.
In extra time Stanford would force a save from Bersano in the first session, and in the second continued to force the action in search of the golden goal. Dersu Abolfathi got free twice in the 106th minute but each time had his effort blocked by the Beaver defense, and Stanford's dogged efforts in extra time went cruelly unrewarded.
But for the third straight game the Cardinal had tallied multiple goals, and the efforts in the adverse conditions give Stanford momentum heading into Sunday's televised clash with Washington.
"It was an interesting, well-played game in very tough conditions, we can be very proud of how our team performed. Now we can look forward to playing at Washington Sunday," Gunn added.