April 29, 2013
Highlights Spring vs USF from Stanford Men's Soccer on Vimeo.
STANFORD, Calif. - Stanford men's soccer grabbed its second win in as many tries this spring with a 2-0 win over San Francisco Saturday night at Laird Q. Cagan Stadium.
The Cardinal continues its spring campaign Tuesday night at Santa Clara Sporting Park, located at the Santa Clara Soccer Complex, against New Zealand-based Kaizen Academy.
First-half goals from Zach Batteer and JJ Koval made the difference Saturday night while the Cardinal back line posted its second clean sheet of the spring.
"It was another great performance and an excellent result against a tough college team," said Stanford head coach Jeremy Gunn. "It was a real good high-intensity game that was very realistic for the fall season. It was very impressive to see us dominate the game pretty much from start to finish."
Batteer, an All-Pac-12 honorable mention last fall, did well early on to work his way past two defenders before wrong-footing the goalkeeper for the match's opening goal. The Cardinal continued to press and would shortly thereafter earn a corner kick which led to the team's second goal.
The service into the box just eluded the attempted punch of the USF keeper and found the head of Koval at the far post, the All-Pac-12 honorable mention finishing for the 2-0 lead.
Stanford would go on to string together numerous chances on goal the rest of the match, carving up the Dons back line and peppering the USF goal with opportunities.
The Cardinal back line, meanwhile, anchored by goalkeeper Drew Hutchins, limited San Francisco's opportunities. At the horn, the defense could boast its second clean sheet of the spring heading into Tuesday night's match.
"All in all the back four held up well because they were put to the test with good attacking soccer and they really reduced the looks on goal," Gunn said. And I thought Zach Batteer did really well causing problems up front. The midfield did a great workman-like job, they did their defensive duties and they joined in whenever we got to the counterattack."