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Men's Soccer

Cardinal, Morris Keep Rolling

STANFORD, Calif. – Junior Jordan Morris pushed across his team-leading fourth goal for the Stanford men's soccer squad in the waning seconds of the first overtime, giving the Cardinal a 1-0 victory against Davidson at Cagan Stadium on a hot Sunday afternoon.

It's Morris' third straight game with a goal and his team's seventh consecutive victory--over which time Stanford has conceded just three goals and scored 12.

"Feels great," Morris said after the game. "All credit to Davidson today. They played a great game. I think a staple of our team is we work hard until the last minute, even if that includes overtime."

TURNING POINT: Morris, who had several scoring opportunities throughout the match, finally put one in the back of the net just as the first ten-minute sudden-death overtime period was coming to an end. Senior Adrian Alabi, on the fringe of the field, fed the ball to Amir Bashti, who then tapped it to Eric Verso in the box. Verso then found Morris, who positioned himself at the far post, for the game-winner with under 10 seconds remaining.

STAT SHEET: Stanford (7-1-0) was on the offensive throughout the match, controlling the ball and the tempo for long stretches of both the first and second halves. The Cardinal tallied 23 total shots, including nine on goal; Morris and sophomore Corey Baird were particularly aggressive, combining for four shots on goal.

GETTING DEFENSIVE: The Cardinal's defense, anchored by veteran captain Brandon Vincent, was stingy once again, limiting the Wildcats (2-3-2) to six total shots and none on goal. The shutout, Stanford's fifth of the season, lowered its goals-against-average to 0.48. Goalie Andrew Epstein has only been forced to make 12 saves in eight games played.

JEREMY GUNN: I thought we played well today. Everybody's always going to analyze whether you take care of business at whatever time, but I thought we played well. We were always the aggressor; they had one great shot in the game that could've stolen it, but other than that it was all us. We just got to that stage where, because hadn't scored, we got a little bit frustrated. It was a hot, tough day...but credit to our players, even though it was frustrating, we kept looking for the winning goal. And that's all that we can ever ask.

A LONG, HOT ONE: Temperatures soared on Sunday afternoon, well exceeding the 90-degree mark. That's one of the factors that prompted Gunn to make more substitutions than he would normally would (all starters except Vincent, Brian Nana-Sinkam, Tomas Hilliard-Arce and Andrew Epstein were subbed out). The heat wasn't a problem for the coach, however, who played his college ball in notoriously-hot Bakersfield at CSUB.

JEREMY GUNN II: This would be cold day down (in Bakersfield), it's in the 90s--we'd be running around thinking it was springtime. It was definitely warm, and we've had a good run of games; as daft as it sounds, I think the players are wanting to get through this game and maybe get one eye on conference. It's hard to be real critical of the players, because we played well and created good chances.

LUCKY NUMBER SEVEN: After dropping its first game of the season to UC Santa Barbara, Stanford has now won seven consecutive, equaling its seven-game run early in the 2014 campaign. Before that, the Cardinal's longest string of victories was a 7-0 start to the 2002 season en route to the to the College Cup final.

LONG LAYOFF: Stanford now enters two-week break from competition and will open its Pac-12 title defense against California on Sunday, October 4 in Berkeley. The Cardinal will then return home to face top-10 teams Washington and Oregon State before heading to Southern California to take on UCLA and San Diego State. All of those matches (except for SDSU) can be seen on the Pac-12 Networks.

JEREMY GUNN III: We'll work hard--we have lots to work on. We've had a great start to the season, but's there's lots of little areas that we can keep improving on. We know it as coaches, the players know it, so (we'll) be hard at work and then we'll give them a little breather to recharge, for sure.