STANFORD, Calif. – Four different Cardinal scored and No. 24 Stanford notched its first win of 2016 in convincing fashion Saturday night, beating San Jose State 4-1.
Corey Baird tallied his first of the year in the 32nd minute, Adam Mosharrafa converted a free kick in the 67th, Foster Langsdorf headed home his second of the season in the 68th, Drew Skundrich capped it off with his team-leading third of the year in the 84th and Stanford (1-1-3) put four on the board for the fifth time under fifth-year head coach Jeremy Gunn.
"We always want to play attacking soccer," Gunn said. "It would have been easy for our team to try and shut up shop, but it was great to see we were on the front foot the whole time. That's what we always want out of the players here."
It didn't appear as if Stanford's first win would come that easily, despite some lopsided statistics. The Cardinal was up a goal at the half on Baird's header from Bryce Marion, but Jeremy Romero curled his shot to the top corner from outside the 18 to tie the score early in the second half. It was San Jose State's first and only shot on frame of the entire match.
"San Jose State kept looking to break through us and they had some wonderful, skillful play, but the goal was out of nothing," Gunn said. "It was just a great control and strike – a fantastic finish. When results haven't been going your way that asks a big question of our guys and I felt we answered it very, very well."
Stanford entered the game with four double-overtime affairs on its ledger and more minutes of play than any other team in the country, but fatigue wouldn't be a factor Saturday.
Mosharrafa inserted himself into the conversation with two big plays 59 seconds apart to open things up for the Cardinal. He skipped in a free kick at the near post from 25-yards away to nudge his team ahead early in the 67th minute. Soon after scoring what ended up being the game winner, the right back lofted a perfect one to the far post from near midfield. Tomas Hilliard-Arce headed the ball back across the goal and Langsdorf was able to glide in and tuck it home with his head at 67:07.
Two goals in less than a minute.
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"Adam is a very clean striker of the ball," Gunn added. "We've been looking at him on some of the free kicks in certain areas and he was good tonight. It's something that you see every day in training from him, but obviously you have to do it on the pitch. That was a big goal for us."
Stanford kept looking for chance after chance in the closing moments and was rewarded with less than seven minutes to play when Skundrich played it ahead to Amir Bashti. Skundrich then darted into the box, received it back and beat SJSU's Nedin Tucakovic to cap off what was a big night for the Cardinal.
Stanford not only won for the first time in the young season, but also extended its three-year run of dominance at home. The program is 20-1-8 in its last 29 matches on The Farm and has a goals against average of under 0.60 at Cagan Stadium since 2014.
Skundrich's strike was his team-leading third of the season. The junior hadn't scored in his career before this year, but has been able to up his offense with a move to the central midfield. Skundrich was a stalwart right back during Stanford's championship run in 2015, starting all 23 games.
"You can never promise the goals, but I could have promised the quality of his play," Gunn said. "He was phenomenal last year as a right back and we always knew he'd move back to central midfield where he grew up playing. We've always had high expectations and high standards for him, but he's been absolutely phenomenal."
Freshman Jared Gilbey earned his first start in the midfield alongside Skundrich and equipped himself extremely well.
"Jared was one of the most composed players on the field," Gunn added. "He passed and moved the ball beautifully and his play was another big bonus for us."
The Cardinal returns to action on Friday, Sept. 16 at 8 p.m. when it hosts Harvard in another match televised on the Pac-12 Network.