At the Turn

No. 12 Stanford (8-2-3, 5-0-0 Pac-12)
at San Diego State (7-3-3, 2-2-1 Pac-12)
Thursday, Oct. 20 • 7 p.m.
SDSU Sports Deck • San Diego, Calif.
Complete Release (PDF)
Live Stream • Available via GoAztecs.com
Live Statistics •Available via StatBroadcast

LOOKING AHEAD » Undefeated through the first half of conference play, No. 12 Stanford (8-2-3, 5-0-0 Pac-12) is on the road for matches at San Diego State (7-3-3, 2-2-1 Pac-12) at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 20 and No. 24 UCLA (7-4-1, 3-2-0 Pac-12) at 5 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 23. 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. A free live stream will be available for Thursday's match at the SDSU Sports Deck via GoAztecs.com.
 
HISTORY VS. SAN DIEGO STATE » Stanford is 15-11-7 all-time against the Aztecs in a series dating back to 1976, 8-0-2 in the past 10 and unbeaten under Jeremy Gunn. The Cardinal hasn't dropped a result to SDSU since a 1-0 loss in San Diego on Sept. 30, 2011.
 
HISTORY VS. UCLA » Stanford is 8-39-9 in 56 all-time meetings with the Bruins dating back to 1973. In its last trip to Los Angeles, the Cardinal won at UCLA on Oct. 16, 2015, 2-1, to secure the program's first win in Westwood. Stanford's 3-0 shutout of the Bruins at home last Sunday was its largest win over UCLA. After going 6-39-6 against UCLA from 1973-2013, Stanford is 2-0-3 in its last five meetings with the Bruins.
 
LOOKING BACK TO LAST WEEK » Stanford continued its strong play to start the Pac-12 season with a pair of convincing home wins over then-No. 25 San Diego State (3-1) and then-No. 17 UCLA (3-0). Corey Baird assisted goals from Foster Langsdorf (7') and Tomas Hilliard-Arce (65') and freshman Derek Waldeck (77') added some insurance late to beat the Aztecs. The Cardinal scored three times in less than 15 minutes in the second half to keep its perfect conference start intact against UCLA with goals coming from Sam Werner (66'), Tanner Beason (76') and Adam Mosharrafa (80').

Beason's third of the year. Cardinal with two goals in 10 minutes.

?? » @Pac12Network #GoStanford https://t.co/dCbXcfh0Hd

— Stanford M Soccer (@StanfordMSoccer) October 17, 2016

PERFECT IN PAC-12 PLAY » The Cardinal has collected the maximum 15 points through the first half of Pac-12 play, outscoring its opponents 9-1. Stanford had never started its conference schedule better than 2-0 in records dating to 1973. The program wasn't affiliated with a conference in 1990 or 1991 and game-by-game results are unavailable for the 1975 season.
 
CONFERENCE STREAKS » Stanford has won six consecutive conference matches dating back to last season, a school record. Denver (10) and North Florida (7) are the only teams that have longer active conference winning streaks. Maryland and Akron have also won six straight in their respective conferences.

Active Conference Winning Streaks

COMING TOGETHER » Stanford, which started its season 0-1-3, averaged 0.75 goals and gave up 0.83 per game in those four matches. Since Sept. 10, the Cardinal has gone 8-1, is averaging 2.33 goals per game and has posted a goals against average of 0.55 in those nine outings. On the year, Stanford is 27th nationally in scoring offense (1.85 goals per game) and 15th in team goals against average (0.64).
 
SIX POINTS ON THE ROAD » Last season, the Cardinal went to Southern California and beat UCLA and San Diego State for its first six-point conference road trip since 2006. Coupled with its 1-0 wins earlier this season at then-No. 16 Washington and Oregon State, Stanford has swept Pac-12 road weekends in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2001 and 2002.
 
PAC-12 DOMINANCE » Stanford, 18-2-5 (.820) in league action since 2014, is 26-11-8 (.667) in Pac-12 play under Jeremy Gunn the past four-plus years. Stanford went 7-1-2 in conference in 2015, setting a school record for Pac-12 wins en route to its second straight league championship. The Cardinal's seven-point cushion at the top of the Pac-12 table was the third-largest margin in conference history, only surpassed by nine-point gaps for the champions in 2011 and 2003.

?? » 2014 ?? » 2015 #GoStanford

A photo posted by Stanford Men's Soccer (@stanfordmenssoccer) on Nov 12, 2015 at 8:10pm PST

IN THE POLLS » The Cardinal dropped out of the polls on Sept. 27 for the first time in two years, but has worked its way back up the polls during its winning streak. Stanford, the nation's preseason No. 1 team, is currently 12th in the NSCAA top 25 and the top-ranked squad in the Pac-12. The Cardinal is also 11th in the official NCAA RPI released on Monday.
 
VS. RANKED » Stanford is 16-13-5 all-time against ranked opponents under Jeremy Gunn, including 9-1-3 in its last 13. The Cardinal is 7-6-2 in true road games against ranked opponents since 2012.

POW » Junior forward Corey Baird won his third career Pac-12 Player of the Week honor on Tuesday after setting up three of Stanford's six goals against SDSU and UCLA, his first three assists of the season. Baird, who was second in the country in assists as a sophomore (13), now has 20 in 55 career matches to rank ninth in program history. He is also tied for 12th among active NCAA players in that category.
 
RECORD WATCH » Redshirt junior Andrew Epstein is working his way into the conversation with some of Stanford's all-time best goalkeepers. His 19 career solo shutouts are third in school history and his career goals against average (0.72) would be second only to Adam Zapala's 0.63 from 1997-2000. His 147 career saves are eighth in the Cardinal record books and his 5,160:36 minutes in goal are already fourth all-time. Epstein owns a career record of 39-7-9 (.791) and is tied for eighth among active players in solo shutouts. His 0.655 goals against average this season is currently 27th in the country.
 
SENIOR CLASS CANDIDATE » On Oct. 7, senior co-captain Brian Nana-Sinkam was one of 30 NCAA men's soccer student-athletes selected as a candidate for the 2016 Senior CLASS Award, which recognizes seniors that have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition. Stanford has done well recently as far as the Senior CLASS Award is concerned. Last season, Brandon Vincent was named a Senior CLASS Award Second Team All-American in addition to being selected as the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

AMERICAN FOR GOALS » Forward Foster Langsdorf has scored seven times in his last nine games and has a career-high eight through the first 13 games of his junior campaign. Included in the spurt are the first two braces of his career, which came in wins over Harvard and Omaha. Langsdorf's eight goals this season lead the team, are tied for first in the Pac-12 and 20th in the nation. He is also 52nd in the nation in points per game (1.31) and 25th in goals per game (0.62). Langsdorf's 1.69 shots on goal per game are the 27th best mark in the country.
 
DOUBLE-DIGIT GOALS » Jordan Morris led Stanford with 13 goals a season ago. The Cardinal has not had two players post 10+ goal campaigns in back-to-back years since 2000 and 2001. Scott Leber (13) and Corey Woolfolk (12) combined for 25 of Stanford's 68 scores in 2000 and Roger Levesque followed that up with 14 goals in 2001.
 
NEW LOOK, SAME STANFORD » A process-oriented bunch, Stanford headed into 2016 with the task of replacing five starters from a year ago, including MAC Hermann Trophy winner Jordan Morris and two-time Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year Brandon Vincent. Those two, along with Slater Meehan, Ty Thompson and Eric Verso, accounted for 53 percent of the Cardinal's goals (23-of-43), 48 percent of its assists (23-of-48) and 52 percent of its points (69-of-134) last season.
 
GREAT UNDER GUNN » One of four coaches to win NCAA titles in both Division I and Division II, Jeremy Gunn's teams are 58-22-14 (.691) in his four-plus seasons on The Farm, including 39-7-9 (.791) since 2014.  He is one of only three coaches in program history to lead Stanford to three straight seasons of 10 or more wins along with Bobby Clark (1996-2000) and Nelson Lodge (1978-83). In guiding the Cardinal to consecutive conference championships, Gunn was awarded Pac-12 Coach of the Year and NSCAA Far West Region Coach of the Year honors in both 2014 and 2015. He owns a career record of 245-83-45 (.717) in 17+ seasons, a mark which makes him the third winningest active coach at the Division I level (by percentage).

Winningest Active Coaches (Entering 2016)

SKUNDRICH SCORES » Junior co-captain Drew Skundrich has tallied the first three goals of his career this season and is tied for second on the team in scoring. Skundrich has been able to up his offense with a move to the central midfield, the position at which he was recruited coming out of Lancaster, Pa. He was a stalwart right back during Stanford's championship run in 2015, starting all 23 games.
 
SCORE TWICE AND WIN » Stanford has scored two or more goals in 48 of Jeremy Gunn's 94 matches as Stanford's head coach and is 42-0-6 in those games. The Cardinal hasn't lost when scoring at least two goals since Nov. 11, 2010, when it fell 3-2 at Cal.

MLS » Four of Jeremy Gunn's players at Stanford are currently on MLS rosters. Jordan Morris in 2016 and Aaron Kovar in 2014 signed with the Seattle Sounders as Homegrown Players, Brandon Vincent was the fourth overall pick of the 2016 MLS SuperDraft by the Chicago Fire and Adam Jahn was recently traded to Columbus Crew SC by the San Jose Earthquakes, which drafted him with the 15th overall pick in the 2013 MLS Supplemental Draft. Off of last year's national championship team, Vincent was a 2016 MLS All-Star and Morris was just came in at No. 3 on MLSsoccer.com's list of its 24 Under 24 series, which ranks the best MLS players under the age of 24. The two-time Stanford All-American and 2015 MAC Hermann Trophy winner, Morris has exploded for 12 goals so far in his first pro season, second in MLS history for a rookie. He also has six game-winning goals, an MLS rookie record and the most in the league this season.