Oct. 14, 2012
SEATTLE, Wash. - Despite outshooting Washington 10-4 and outplaying the Huskies for much of Sunday's contest in Seattle, 10-man Stanford was snake-bitten by Husky goals in the 81st and 86th minutes and dropped a 2-0 decision.
The loss keeps Stanford at seven points in Pac-12 play with a 2-2-1 conference record, its overall mark falls to 5-6-1. The Cardinal returns to Laird Q. Cagan Stadium this week for its final homestand of the season, hosting Oregon State Thursday at 5 p.m. and Washington Sunday at 12 p.m. for Senior Day. Both matches will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks.
"We knew that it was going to be the ugliest game we'd play in all year, and our mentality was very good. We competed and managed to play what little soccer was on offer for the day," said Stanford head coach Jeremy Gunn.
The Cardinal, reduced to 10 men Sunday after Brandon Vincent was sent off with a red card in the 54th minute, still fought for the away points, outshooting the Huskies 7-2 over the final 36 minutes. Unfortunately for the Cardinal, the numbers game caught up to them late as the Huskies broke the deadlock with an 81st-minute header from Nate Sackeyfio.
The lead was doubled five minutes later on a Ben Fisk penalty after Stanford was called for bringing a Husky attacker down in the box.
"Washington is a tough team to break down so we knew there would be very few chances in the game," Gunn noted. "We managed to reduce Washington to two actual chances the whole game but in the last 10 minutes they got a header off a free kick and then the late penalty. I was very proud of how our team performed. We were disciplined and very good defensively, but in the end we managed to get beat by a header."
Stanford opened the match well, earning a corner kick in the 10th minute. Aaron Kovar swung the kick into the box but Adam Jahn, coming off of a brace in Friday's 2-2 draw at Oregon State, saw his header go wide of the frame.
Jahn would again get his head on a Kovar corner in the 44th minute but again had his effort go wide of the goal.
The game's makeup changed in the 54th minute when Vincent was shown the red, putting the Cardinal a man down for the rest of the match. Yet the Cardinal still pushed the action, as Dersu Abolfathi and Jack Ryan each forced Washington keeper Spencer Richey into action with shots in the 74th and 81st minutes.
But the stalemate would be broken against the run of play when Washington's Sackeyfio nodded home a pass from Fisk for his second goal of the campaign. Fisk's penalty five minutes later would provide the final margin, a disappointing end to a solid away effort from the Cardinal.
"We completed many more passes in the second half. We played the better soccer in the second half and created some good openings and kept them very quiet," Gunn said. "Overall I'm pleased with how the game had gone. Having Brandon sent off made life more difficult for us and we weren't able to play quite the same way."