STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford scored three times in less than 15 minutes in the second half and the No. 16 Cardinal continued its perfect conference start with a 3-0 win over No. 17 UCLA at Cagan Stadium on Sunday night.
Stanford (8-2-3, 5-0-0 Pac-12) is 5-0 in Pac-12 play and six points clear of Washington (9-4-0, 3-2-0 Pac-12) and UCLA (7-4-1, 3-2-0 Pac-12) halfway through the league schedule. It's the second time in program history the Cardinal has put together a five-match conference winning streak in the same season. The 2000 squad also did so in the first year of Pac-12 men's soccer.
The win was Stanford's largest win over UCLA and the Cardinal's biggest in conference since beating No. 16 Oregon State by the same score last Oct. 11. After going 6-39-6 against the Bruins from 1973-2013, Stanford is 2-0-3 in its last five with UCLA.
"It was a tremendous weekend," Stanford head coach Jeremy Gunn said of his team, which also beat No. 25 San Diego State on Thursday, 3-1. "We can be very excited about how the first five have gone, but there are miles to go. There's no room for complacency because every single one of these games can have different outcomes. If we keep showing up with the right mentality and the right work rate then the class of how we're playing right now can hopefully shine through."
Stanford's class shined on Sunday. The Cardinal outshot UCLA 20-11, put 11 on frame and forced Bruin freshman Kevin Silva into a season-high eight saves.
Sam Werner started the 15-minute barrage in the 66th when Corey Baird cut a ball back to the top of the box and Werner put it away to the far post. Werner's third career goal and first of the season came minutes after Baird rattled the post with a shot from 20-yards out and seconds after a Foster Langsdorf header nicked the same bar.
Stanford began tacking on its insurance goals in the 76th when Werner took one of his team's six corners on the night. UCLA was able to clear the service, but not far enough. Tanner Beason chested it down at the top of the 18, collected and launched a laser to the left corner with his right foot for the Cardinal's second tally.
Beason's third of the year. Cardinal with two goals in 10 minutes.
— Stanford M Soccer (@StanfordMSoccer) October 17, 2016
?? » @Pac12Network #GoStanford https://t.co/dCbXcfh0Hd
Adam Mosharrafa joined in the offense in the 80th minute when he curled his free kick perfectly around the wall to the upper corner and put the game out of reach.
"From back to front it was an amazing performance," Gunn added. "UCLA is a tremendous team, but on the night we thoroughly deserved it. Everybody brought their 'A' game. We were rock solid defensively [and] there was an awful lot of the time when we were watching our guys attack rather than watching theirs involved in the game. At the end of the day you really have to look at how many chances we had and how many saves their keeper had to make, which pretty much showed that on the night we definitely deserved the victory."
Stanford moved to 18-2-5 (.820) in Pac-12 play since 2014 and 9-1-3 (.808) in its last 13 games against ranked opponents. The Cardinal also extended its unbeaten streak at home to 20. Stanford is 25-1-8 in its last 34 on The Farm.
Andrew Epstein made three saves and collected the 19th clean sheet of his career to move into third all-time at Stanford. Corey Baird assisted on three of the Cardinal's six goals in its wins over San Diego State and UCLA and now has 20 in 55 career matches, ninth in program history.
After starting the year 0-1-3, Stanford has gone 8-1-0 in its last nine games and outscored its opponents 21-5, including 9-1 in conference.
"I think we were a little bit unfortunate with some of the results at the beginning of the season because I felt we did enough in some of the games to win," Gunn commented. "It's harsh to say, [but] I think we were just waiting for the result in some ways and the biggest thing we've worked on is going and getting the result. That means having that cutting edge and that drive to score goals. That's what's been really, really special over the last month. Some of it is also that it takes time for things to bed in. Those first couple of games we were almost there and since then we've hit a good feel with the group and we're firing on all cylinders at the moment."
Stanford is in Southern California for its next two matches. The Cardinal plays at San Diego State on Thursday, Oct. 20 at 7 p.m. and is at UCLA on Sunday, Oct. 23 at 5 p.m. The game in Westwood will be televised on Pac-12 Network, Pac-12 Bay Area and Pac-12 Los Angeles with Christian Miles and Cobi Jones on the call.