Five Straight on The FarmFive Straight on The Farm
Maciek Gudrymowicz/ISIPhotos.com
Men's Soccer

Five Straight on The Farm

Stanford (1-0-3)
vs. No. 15 UMass Lowell (5-0-1) | Fri. • 7 p.m.
vs. Delaware (1-3-0) | Sun. • 1 p.m.
Laird Q. Cagan Stadium • Stanford, Calif.
2018 Promotions
Tickets • UMass Lowell | Delaware
Television • Pac-12 Networks (Fri.) | Pac-12 Networks (Sun.)
Live Statistics • GoStanford.com
Complete Release (PDF)
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

LOOKING AHEAD » Stanford (1-0-3) begins a three-week homestand this weekend when it hosts No. 15 UMass Lowell (5-0-1) and Delaware (1-3-0) for a pair of matches broadcast on Pac-12 Network. Friday's contest against the River Hawks starts at 7 p.m. with Rich Cellini and Kelly Gray on the call. Sunday's 1 p.m. date with the Blue Hens will have Troy Clardy providing play-by-play and Gray again handling analysis.
 
LAST TIME OUT » Stanford scored twice in two minutes midway through the second half and the then-No. 25 Cardinal picked up its first win of the season at No. 16 San Francisco on Friday night, 2-0. Derek Waldeck barreled in his second career goal to the left post in the 67th minute and curled his left-footed corner to the top of the six in the 69th, which Adam Mosharrafa headed in for his fifth career score. Waldeck was named to the College Soccer News National Team of the week for his efforts in Stanford's road victory.

SERIES HISTORIES » Friday will be the first meeting between Stanford and UMass Lowell. The Cardinal beat then-No. 11 Delaware in the teams' only prior match on Sept. 21, 2014 in Cagan Stadium. After a Delaware player was sent off in the 53rd minute, Eric Verso scored (53:43) when Brandon Vincent took the ball to the near corner and whipped in a pass to Jordan Morris, whose flick of the heel found Verso in front to put the Cardinal up. Delaware equalized at 56:50, but Corey Baird scored the winner in the 66th, his first career goal, off another assist from Morris.
 
UNRANKED IS AN ODDITY » Stanford moved to 28-14-7 all-time against ranked opponents under Jeremy Gunn with its victory at San Francisco, including 21-2-5 in its last 28. The Cardinal themselves dropped out of the United Soccer Coaches poll on Tuesday despite the ranked road win (currently 26th with 60 points, 14 points shy of No. 25 Creighton). The Cardinal will play as an unranked team on Friday for the first time since Oct. 9, 2016 against Oregon State, a span of 706 days. Stanford entered conference play that season out of the top 25, but jumped back up to No. 16 following three 1-0 wins over Cal, No. 16 Washington and the Beavers.  In fact, after falling out of the poll following a 2-1 loss at San Francisco on Sept. 23, 2016, the Cardinal went 12-1-2 over its final 15 matches and won its second consecutive national championship.
 
CARDINAL QUICK HITTERS »

  • Stanford cemented its dynasty with yet another clinical postseason performance in 2017. On a sequence that began with a throw-in deep in opponent territory, Sam Werner stripped an Indiana player with one touch and stabbed a right-footed shot under the crossbar on his next, at 102:03, to beat the Hoosiers 1-0 and give Stanford just the second three-year championship run in NCAA history.
  • Stanford is just the second program to win three straight NCAA titles. Virginia won four in a row from 1991-94. It is also the seventh program to win at least three national championships along with Saint Louis (10), Indiana (8), Virginia (7), San Francisco (4), UCLA (4) and Maryland (3).
  • Stanford went 52-7-10 (.826) during its three-year championship run.
  • The Cardinal did not allow a goal throughout the entire 2017 tournament for the second straight year and upped its NCAA-record postseason shutout streak to 12 - a stretch of 1,214 minutes and 20 seconds. The only other programs to go through a postseason without allowing a goal are Wisconsin (1995) and San Francisco (1976).
  • The Cardinal is in the midst of a 19-match unbeaten streak, the second-longest stretch in program history. Stanford went 20 games without a loss across the 1996 and 1997 campaigns.
  • The Cardinal has 37-3-9 (.847) record at home since 2014 with a goals against average of 0.49.

SHUTOUT STREAK SNAPPED » Stanford had an active shutout streak of 974:15 before Georgetown scored on Sept. 3, the longest stretch in program history. Ethan Lochner's 65th-minute tally was the first goal the Cardinal had surrendered since a Brian Iloski penalty kick for UCLA on November 2, 2017, a span of nine matches. It was also Stanford's first goal allowed from open play since October 19, 2017 at Washington when Kyle Coffee headed in a cross (1,208:02). The Cardinal's nine-match streak of not allowing a goal from November 5, 2017 to August 31, 2018 is tied for the eighth-longest in NCAA history.

NCAA RANKS » With shutouts in three of its first four matches, the Cardinal is sixth nationally in goals against average (0.215) and redshirt freshman goalkeeper Andrew Thomas is seventh individually in that category (0.215). Stanford is tied for 171st out of 204 Division I sides, averaging 0.75 goals per game. Of the 32 schools averaging 0.75 goals per game or fewer, the Cardinal is one of two without a loss (Virginia; 2-0-2).
 
NEW LOOK, SAME STANFORD » A process-oriented bunch, Stanford heads into 2018 with the task of replacing seven starters from a year ago, including the conference's career goal scoring leader Foster Langsdorf and 2017 Top Drawer Soccer Player of the Year Tomas Hilliard-Arce. Those two, along with Corey Baird, Nico Corti, Bryce Marion, Drew Skundrich and Sam Werner led Stanford to three national championships, four Pac-12 titles, a 65-10-13 overall record (.813) and 30-3-7 (.838) conference mark in their four years on The Farm. They combined for 71 percent of Stanford's scoring last season (34 of 48) and are all playing professionally. (Nico Corti – RGVFC; Foster Langsdorf – Timbers FC2; Tomas Hilliard-Arce – LA Galaxy; Bryce Marion – RGVFC; Corey Baird – Real Salt Lake; Drew Skundrich – Bethlehem Steel FC; Sam Werner – Israel). The Cardinal has started four freshmen in each of its first four matches of 2018.
 
SIMILAR TO 2016? » Stanford returned a loaded bunch last season, but after its first championship the Cardinal was also forced to search for answers at key spots the following year. The Cardinal had to replace five starters, 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 scoring (23-of-43) during its 2015 title run. Stanford started its 2016 season 0-1-3, averaged 0.75 goals and gave up 0.83 per game in those four matches, but finished the year 15-2-2 in its last 19, averaging 1.84 goals per game and with a goals against average of 0.53 en route to title No. 2.
 
GREAT UNDER GUNN » One of four coaches to win NCAA titles in both Division I and Division II, head coach Jeremy Gunn has led a team to the College Cup final four times in the past seven seasons. He and Virginia's Bruce Arena (1991-94) are the only coaches to win three consecutive NCAA men's soccer championships. His teams are 85-25-21 (.729) in his six-plus seasons on The Farm and he owns a career record of 272-86-52 (.727) in 19-plus seasons, a mark which makes him the fourth winningest active coach at the Division I level and the 18th winningest coach all-time (both by percentage). Gunn and his staff were named the 2017 National Staff of the Year by United Soccer Coaches and he also secured the first national men's coach of the year award handed out by Top Drawer Soccer.

View this post on Instagram

One responsibility. #GoStanford

A post shared by Stanford Men's Soccer (@stanfordmenssoccer) on Aug 8, 2018 at 2:53pm PDT

KENNEDY PROMOTED » On August 22, third-year assistant Oige Kennedy was promoted to associate head coach. Working primarily with the Cardinal's keepers, Kennedy's first two years on The Farm have been hugely successful. In 2017, Nico Corti put together the best statistical season for a goalkeeper in Stanford men's soccer history. He finished second in the country in both goals against average (0.386) and solo shutouts (14), set Pac-12 records in both categories, a school record in goals against average and tied the school record in solo shutouts. A year prior, Andrew Epstein made two consecutive penalty kick saves in the College Cup final against Wake Forest to lead the Cardinal to its second straight national championship. That season, Epstein was named the College Cup's Defensive Most Outstanding Player, a United Soccer Coaches Second Team All-American, CoSIDA First Team Academic All-American and finished seventh in the country in goals against average (0.571). Corti (0.00) and Epstein (0.34) are first and second in NCAA history in career postseason goals against average and just the fifth and sixth keepers in college soccer history to go through an entire postseason without allowing a single goal.
 
MAKE IT FOUR » Stanford finished its most recent regular season 15-2-1 overall and was unbeaten in conference action for the first time (9-0-1). The Cardinal's 2017 conference title sits on the mantle alongside championships from 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2001. Stanford became the second Pac-12 school to win four in a row. UCLA won the same number of consecutive conference crowns from 2002-05. Jeremy Gunn is the only coach in league history to win more than two consecutive Pac-12 titles as UCLA's four-year run was split evenly between Tom Fitzgerald and Jorge Salcedo.
 
THE CAPITAL OF COLLEGE SOCCER » Last season Stanford became the first Division I school to win national titles in both men's and women's soccer in the same season. The men's championship came one week after the Cardinal women knocked off UCLA, 3-2, for that program's second national crown. Stanford has won more NCAA titles (117) than any other school and owns an active 42-year stretch with at least one NCAA team championship dating back to 1976-77.
 
SCORE TWICE AND WIN » Stanford has scored two or more goals in 67 of Jeremy Gunn's 131 matches as Stanford's head coach and is 61-0-6 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.
 
FOREIGN TOUR » In late March, Stanford went on a foreign tour of England that included stops in London and Manchester and matches against academy sides from Fulham (W, 3-0), Queens Park Rangers (W, 5-2) and Bradford City (W, 3-1). A 20-minute documentary from Ingredient Films on the team's trip has garnered more than 70,000 views on YouTube and debuted on Pac-12 Networks immediately following the match against San Jose State on August 24.

DESTINATION STANFORD » In early August, AC Milan used Cagan Stadium for training during its United States tour. The visit continued a trend of top national sides and clubs utilizing the unparalleled facilities and environment of Stanford for training. Liverpool came during the summer of 2016 and the USMNT was on campus for camp before the 2014 FIFA World Cup and within the past five years Stanford has also hosted Manchester United, Italian giant Juventus and English side Norwich City.