Nico_Corti_LR_10122017_132Nico_Corti_LR_10122017_132
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Men's Soccer

Win Will Do It

No. 4 Stanford (12-2-1, 6-0-1 Pac-12)
UCLA (7-7-1, 4-3-0 Pac-12) | Thurs. • 5:30 p.m. PT
San Diego State (5-11-0, 0-7-0 Pac-12) | Sun. • 5 p.m. PT
Laird Q. Cagan Stadium • Stanford, Calif.
Tickets • UCLA | San Diego State
Television • Pac-12 Networks (Thurs.) | Pac-12 Networks (Sun.)
Live Statistics • GoStanford.com
Complete Release (PDF)
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LOOKING AHEAD » No. 4 Stanford (12-2-1, 6-0-1 Pac-12) has a chance to clinch its fourth consecutive Pac-12 title when it hosts UCLA (7-7-1, 4-3-0 Pac-12) at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 2 and San Diego State (5-11-0, 0-7-0 Pac-12) on Sunday, Nov. 5 at 5 p.m. Troy Clardy will handle play-by-play duties for both matches on Pac-12 Networks. Kelly Gray will add commentary against the Bruins and Christopher Sullivan will be in the booth providing his analysis against the Aztecs.
 
WHAT'S AT STAKE » With 19 points and a 6-0-1 record, the Cardinal begins its homestand three points clear of second-place Washington and seven ahead of UCLA and California, which are tied for third. A Stanford win on Thursday night against UCLA would clinch the Cardinal's fourth consecutive Pac-12 championship. Cal and San Diego State play at 3:30 p.m. Thursday afternoon in Berkeley. If that match ends in a draw, the Cardinal would need to earn just one point against the Bruins to secure the championship. Washington is on a bye this weekend and has just one game remaining in conference to Stanford's three so the Cardinal needs one more point to eliminate UW. SDSU and Oregon State are already out of the race.

NEVER AT HOME » The Cardinal has never captured any of its four Pac-12 championships at home. In 2001 it clinched its first conference title with a 3-1 win at Oregon State on Nov. 18. Thirteen years later on Nov. 16, 2014 it was a 3-2 victory in double overtime at Cal that returned Stanford to the top of the Pac. In 2015, Stanford secured a share of the league crown with a 2-0 win at Oregon State on Oct. 31 and won it outright while on a bye when Washington and San Diego State played to a 1-1 draw on Nov. 6. The Cardinal also won the conference championship on a bye last season when Washington lost 1-0 at home to San Diego State on Nov. 6.
 
SENIOR DAY » Prior to Sunday's match, the Cardinal will honor its six seniors - Corey Baird, Nico Corti, Tomas Hilliard-Arce, Foster Langsdorf, Bryce Marion and Drew Skundrich. Stanford has experienced an unprecedented level of success the past four seasons, posting a 58-10-12 overall record, including a 27-3-7 mark in the Pac-12, winning three conference championships and a pair of NCAA crowns.
 
PROMOTIONS »

  • Eligible Stanford faculty and staff have the opportunity to claim up to four free tickets Thursday against UCLA as part of the University's BeWell program. All that needs be done is complete a 2017 SHALA and then register for tickets, after which you will receive instructions on how to claim. Full details. 
  • Thundersticks will also be given to the first 500 fans in attendance to cheer on the Cardinal during the game against the Bruins. Pick up the giveaway at the Stanford Athletics table on the general admission (west) side of Cagan Stadium.
  • On Sunday against San Diego State, fans can purchase a Family Four Pack, which consists of four tickets, four hot dogs and four sodas for $40.
  • A full promotional schedule for 2017 can be found by visiting gostanford.com/msocpromotions.

STANFORD-UCLA SERIES » Stanford is 10-39-9 in 58 all-time meetings with the Bruins dating back to 1973. After going 6-39-6 against UCLA from 1973-2013, Stanford is 4-0-3 in its last seven meetings with the Bruins. It won at UCLA earlier this season, 1-0, on a Drew Skundrich header in the 35th minute. Last season at Cagan the Cardinal won 3-0, its largest margin of victory over the Bruins, off three second-half goals from Sam Werner, Tanner Beason and Adam Mosharrafa.

STANFORD-SAN DIEGO STATE SERIES » Stanford is 16-11-8 all-time against the Aztecs in a series dating back to 1976, 9-0-3 in the past 12 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. Stanford won at SDSU in its conference opener on Sept. 28, 5-0. That was the Cardinal's highest scoring output and largest margin of victory in conference since beating Cal 6-1 on Nov. 9, 2012. In 17 seasons of Pac-12 men's soccer, it was just the second time Stanford had scored five goals in a league game. It was also the Cardinal's largest margin of victory in a shutout since it beat Richmond 6-0 on Sept. 21, 2002.
 
CARDINAL QUICK HITTERS »

  • Stanford is one of six programs to win back-to-back national championships and was the first to do it in a dozen years. The Cardinal joined Indiana, Virginia, San Francisco, Saint Louis and Michigan State as the only collegiate soccer programs to win two consecutive championships.
  • This season the Cardinal will attempt to become just the second program to win three straight NCAA titles (Virginia; 1991-94).
  • Stanford on the 2016 title without allowing a goal throughout the entire tournament, becoming just the third program to ever do that (Wisconsin – 1995, San Francisco 1976).
  • The Cardinal had a shutout streak of 820:27 ended with Garrett McLaughlin's goal at 1:58 for SMU on Sept. 7. Stanford would go on to score three unanswered to beat the Mustangs 3-1.
  • McLaughlin's goal ended Stanford's streak of eight consecutive matches without conceding. That scoreless match number is tied for the 12th-longest in NCAA history.
  • The Cardinal still owns an active postseason shutout streak of seven consecutive matches, an NCAA record, and 732:17 of match time.

TREE-PEAT » Stanford went 8-1-1 in league action a year ago, setting a school record for Pac-12 wins, and won its third consecutive conference championship (2016, 2015, 2014, 2001). The Cardinal is the second Pac-12 school to win three in a row. UCLA won four consecutive conference crowns from 2002-05. Stanford's Pac-12 record during its almost four-year run of dominance is 27-3-7 (.824). Jeremy Gunn is already the first coach in league history to win three consecutive Pac-12 titles as UCLA's four-year run was split evenly between Tom Fitzgerald and Jorge Salcedo. Stanford has won four straight conference championships once in its history, taking home University and Club Soccer League (UCSL) championships from 1919-22.
 
MORE THAN THREE SEASONS OF SUCCESS » The nation's most successful collegiate soccer program over the past three-plus seasons, Stanford is 58-10-12 and leads the nation in winning percentage since 2014 (.800). North Carolina (.788; 58-12-10) is second and followed by Wake Forest (.783; 61-14-8), Denver (.747; 55-16-8) and Indiana (.735; 50-12-19).
 
GREAT UNDER GUNN » One of four coaches to win NCAA titles in both Division I and Division II, head coach Jeremy Gunn's teams are 77-25-17 (.718) in his five-plus seasons on The Farm. He owns a career record of 264-86-48 (.724) in 18-plus seasons, a mark which makes him the fourth winningest active coach at the Division I level by percentage. Carlos Somoano of North Carolina is first (.768; 104-24-21), followed by Ray Reid of Connecticut (.747; 432-122-73) and Schellas Hyndman at Grand Canyon (.745; 487-149-54). With Stanford's 2016 NCAA title Gunn became the seventh coach in Division I history to win back-to-back national championships along with Jerry Yeagley (Indiana), Bruce Arena (Virginia), Steve Negoesco (San Francisco), Harry Keough (Saint Louis), Gene Kenney (Michigan State) and Bob Guelker (Saint Louis).

CONVERTING CHANCES » Stanford's 31 goals through 15 games are its most since it had 32 through the same number of matches in 2002. The Cardinal has scored three or more goals seven times already, matching its total from last season and one short of the eight from the championship season of 2015. Stanford has 16 goals through seven conference matches and has only conceded twice, both to Washington.
 
LANGSDORF LEADS » Last year's Co-Pac-12 Player of the Year Foster Langsdorf is menacing defenses again in 2017 and the senior is 19th nationally in total goals (10) and 16th in goals per game (0.67). He was named Pac-12 Player of the Week for the second time this season on Oct. 24 after scoring both winners in Stanford's road sweep of Washington and Oregon State. The senior, who was fifth nationally with 15 goals a year ago, now has 10 this season and is the first Cardinal with back-to-back, double-digit goal campaigns since Jim Talluto in 1990 and 1991. He is tied for sixth in school history with 33 career goals and alone in seventh with 75 career points. Langsdorf's career goal total is the most for a Stanford player in 34 years. Jorge Titinger finished his four years with 48 from 1980-83, the second-best mark in school history.

BACK-TO-BACK OF A DIFFERENT SORT? » Since men's soccer became a Pac-12 sport in 2000, no one has earned multiple Pac-12 Player of the Year awards. Langsdorf currently leads the league lead in both goals and points and is close to breaking the conference's career scoring record. He needs one goal to tie and two to break Kevin Forrest's mark of 34 set at Washington from 2003-07.
 
BAIRD'S BACK » Paired with Langsdorf up top is Corey Baird, who has missed five games this season due to injury. Baird's 27 career assists are seventh in the Cardinal record books and one shy of a three-way tie for fourth along with Todd Dunivant (1999-2002), Giancarlo Ferruzzi (1982-85) and Jorge Titinger (1980-83). His assist total is also fourth among all active players, behind Rider's Jose Aguinaga (32), Cal's Jose Carrera-Garcia (28) and Wisconsin's Christopher Mueller (28).
 
FIRST TIME IN A LONG TIME » For the first time since 2013, someone other than Andrew Epstein is between the pipes for the Cardinal. Redshirt senior Nico Corti has taken over for Stanford's All-American keeper and recorded eight solo shutouts in 15 games, already tied for 10th in program history. He's seventh nationally in goals against average (0.529) and his shutout total is ninth in the country. Entering the year, Corti hadn't allowed a goal in 76 career minutes. He was a part of seven shutouts as a substitute from 2014-16.
 
NCAA RANKS » Stanford is second nationally in assists per game (2.80), sixth in points per game (6.93), 14th in scoring offense (2.07), sixth in shots per game (16.33), seventh in shutout percentage (0.600) and seventh in goals against average (0.526).
 
HOME OR ROAD, IT DOESN'T MATTER » Stanford has posted a 33-3-7 (.849) record at home since 2014 with a goals against average of 0.53. The Cardinal is unbeaten in road Pac-12 matches the past two seasons after going a perfect 5-0 this year. Stanford is 9-0-1 in its last 10 league contests away from Cagan.
 
TEAM ACADEMIC AWARD » Stanford was honored by United Soccer Coaches on Oct. 5 with the College Team Academic Award for the most recent academic year. The Cardinal posted a cumulative 3.48 GPA during 2016-17, the fourth-best among Division I schools (Denver - 3.58; Memphis - 3.50; Notre Dame - 3.49).
 
SENIOR CLASS FINALISTS » Tomas Hilliard-Arce and Foster Langsdorf were each named to a list of 10 NCAA student-athletes selected as finalists for the 2017 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. Brandon Vincent and Brian Nana-Sinkam have earned Senior CLASS Award Second Team All-America status the past two years.
 
VOM STEEG WITH U-18'S » Continuing the program's strong ties with U.S. Soccer, freshman Carson Vom Steeg recently returned from Spain with the U-18 Men's National Team for an international camp in Marbella from Oct. 1-10, which included friendlies with Belgium and Russia.

SCORE TWICE AND WIN » Stanford has scored two or more goals in 61 of Jeremy Gunn's 119 matches as Stanford's head coach and is 55-0-6 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.
 
WATCH LISTS » All-Americans Tomas Hilliard-Arce and Foster Langsdorf are two of 31 players on the 2017 MAC Hermann Trophy Watch List. The Cardinal is the only school in the country with multiple players recognized and also the only one returning multiple All-Americans this year. Stanford also placed a league-best four on the All-Pac-12 preseason team in seniors Corey Baird, Hilliard-Arce, Langsdorf and Drew Skundrich. Hilliard-Arce was also voted to the Top Drawer Soccer Preseason Best XI first team, Langsdorf the second team, Skundrich the third team and Logan Panchot the freshman team. Stanford's four preseason honorees tied Virginia for the national lead.
 
WHAT'S BACK, WHAT'S NOT » Unlike last season, when Stanford was forced to replace nearly have of its lineup, nine of 11 starters return in 2017, including two All-Americans, three all-region performers and five All-Pac-12 players. Goalkeeper Andrew Epstein, who finished his superb career with a 46-8-11 record and a NCAA-record 0.34 postseason goals against average, graduated from Stanford with his degree in electrical engineering and is working with the Peace Corps in Benin. Brian Nana-Sinkam became the Cardinal's eighth first-round selection when he was chosen with the 22nd overall pick by the Seattle Sounders in January's MLS SuperDraft and is currently playing with Sounders FC2.