STANFORD, Calif. – Freshman Will Richmond scored his first career goal to equalize in the second half and No. 12 Stanford was able to salvage a 2-2 draw with Oregon State on Thursday night.
The Cardinal (7-2-4, 4-1-1) didn't seem to be its usual self from the outset. Both Beaver (7-4-3, 3-2-1) tallies in the first half came off defensive miscues and Stanford's passing was suspect, giving Oregon State possession and advantage.
"We did everything to make life difficult for ourselves," Knowles Family Director of Men's Soccer Jeremy Gunn said. "We just gifted a goal to the opponent and then we let one in in the last minute of the half. That's not good enough. Those are the disappointing parts, but the exciting part is that on a night when we did everything to shoot ourselves in the foot we also did everything to fight our way back into the game and we have to commend the guys for their resiliency."
In the 21st minute, a pass on the back line between Collin Liberty and Adam Mosharrafa wasn't executed properly and Liberty's ball skipped directly into the center of the box with no one around. OSU's Gloire Amanda pounced on it and beat Andrew Thomas to the left post.
Stanford pulled itself level 15 minutes later when a Derek Waldeck took a free kick from near the corner flag and hit a pinpoint service to Tanner Beason in the box. Beason headed home his fourth goal of the season to swing momentum back the Cardinal's way until disaster struck two seconds before the halftime horn.
Sofiane Djeffal played Don Tchilao out wide left for OSU. Tchilao ran at the keeper and had the ball deflect to the far post where Albert Pedra was waiting in front of an open goal for the freshman's first career score, which gave the Beavers a 2-1 edge heading into the break.
"When you give away the goals we did tonight soccer is really tough," Gunn added. "That was the game in a nutshell. When you do that it's really difficult, but it was great for our boys to get back into it. While we're certainly disappointed not to get the win, under the circumstances we're very, very happy to pick up a point and move forward to the next game."
Richmond saved Stanford in the 68th minute with a rocket which ricocheted in off the near post. Arda Bulut held up his defender at the top of the 18 and played it pack to Jared Gilbey, who one-touched it out left to Richmond. The freshman cut inside and hit his blast past an outstretched Adrian Fernandez to again pull his team even.
GOLAZO
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"He did what we know he can and hopefully that's going to give him a little bit of confidence moving forward," Gunn commented of Richmond. "I'm really pleased with his performance and his contribution and that just gives us another player that is pushing us to get on the pitch and help us get the results that we want."
Despite the defensive lapses, the Cardinal did have a few bright moments. In the 31st, Adam Mosharrafa raced back and made a sliding block of Tchilao's shot from inside the box to save a nearly certain goal. Tchilao had a breakaway shortly thereafter and lost his footing at the top of the box, which allowed Thomas to come off his line and make a kick save.
In the 58th minute, Amanda had a free header off a corner for Oregon State and whipped it on goal, where Gilbey was waiting and able to save it off the line. The Cardinal dodged a bullet when Amanda rose up for another header in the first overtime that skipped wide.
Stanford nearly equalized coming right out of the locker room at half, but Waldeck's volley slammed into the right post.
The Cardinal is back in action Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. when it hosts Washington on Pac-12 Network.