Junior forward Alex Doll cleaned up a rebound in the 18th minute of extra time to give second-ranked Stanford women’s soccer a season-opening 2-1 victory at Boston College.
Stanford (1-0-0) buses to Hartford to close the weekend Sunday with a 3 p.m. PT kickoff against Connecticut.
“It was a hard-fought match and the team showed great character to win on the road so I was pleased with how we performed,” said Stanford head coach Paul Ratcliffe.
Chioma Ubogagu was credited with the assist on the match-winner, her second of the match, after her shot was saved by Eagle goalkeeper Jessica Mickelson, who could not corral the rebound before Doll finished. Ubogagu had previously set up Sydney Payne’s equalizer in the 11th minute.
“Chioma had a strong match and played a lot of minutes which helped her get the ball a lot,” Ratcliffe said. “Overall everyone made a strong contribution tonight. Players came off the bench and made strong contributions. It was a strong team victory at the end of the day.”
Stanford did well to recover from an early Boston College goal, clamp down on defense and tinker away on offense to grind out the two goals that provided victory.
Cardinal goalkeeper Emily Oliver was kept plenty busy throughout the match, facing 10 shots on frame and recording nine saves. For the contest Boston College outshot Stanford 17-9 and forced Oliver into five saves over the opening 45 minutes.
“Emily had a fantastic performance in goal and was a great presence for us. We played on field turf so the speed of play was very quick and we were adjusting to the surface,” Ratcliffe noted. “BC has talented players and broke through to get a strong goal that put us on our heels. But we fought back and showed strong character to come back get the win.”
“It’s a huge boost to the squad. BC is a strong ACC team so it’s a significant win for the season. Hopefully we’ll build off of the confidence that we got today and have a strong game against Connecticut,” Ratcliffe added.
Boston College, 25-7-5 at home over the past three seasons heading into Friday’s match, recovered from conceding a pair of corner kicks to the Cardinal in the fifth minute to shock the Cardinal with a seventh-minute goal. Lauren Bernard worked herself free to Oliver’s right and slotted home low to the far corner for the shock 1-0 lead.
The Eagles began to build on the confidence, earning a corner a minute later then forcing Oliver into action again, this time to save a shot from Patrice Vettori in the ninth minute.
But the Cardinal would turn the momentum two minutes later. The dangerous Ubogagu fired on frame and had her shot deflected into the net by Payne for the 11th-minute equalizer.
Outside of Oliver making three saves, the rest of the half went by fairly quietly for both sides after the fast start.
The second half featured a strong start for the Eagles, as they forced Oliver into three more saves before Ubogagu registered the Cardinal’s first shot of the half in the 77th minute. Neither team could get a shot on frame over the final 26 minutes and it was on to extra time.
Boston College managed the only shot of the first 10-minute overtime session, but it was the Cardinal that took control of the second. After the defense settled in to limit BC’s chances during the overtimes, Ubogagu got free again in the 118th minute to force the shot which Mickelson saved but could not control, allowing Doll to finish to give the Cardinal the win.