2018 Season In Review2018 Season In Review
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Men's Soccer

2018 Season In Review

Stanford (12-4-5, 7-2-1 Pac-12)
Statistics
NCAA Statistical Rankings

TOURNAMENT SNAPSHOT

  • Stanford went 12-4-5 overall in 2018, won its record fifth consecutive conference championship with a 7-2-1 mark and advanced to the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Tournament for the fourth year in a row.
  • The Cardinal, which beat UC Irvine, 2-0, in its first postseason match, advanced past Saint Mary's on penalties, 4-2, following a scoreless 110 minutes in Moraga.
  • Stanford has played five scoreless draws over the last four postseasons and prevailed in penalties each time, and come out on top in seven consecutive postseason shootouts dating back to 2002.
  • The Cardinal hosted its first quarterfinal at home since 2002 and after battling back from 2-0 down to tie the match against Akron in the 68th minute, Colin Biros scored the winner for the Zips in the 81st to deny Stanford its bid for a fourth consecutive national title.
  • The Cardinal is 28-13-7 all-time in the NCAA tournament - 15-3-4 at home, 7-7-1 on the road and 6-3-2 at the College Cup.
  • Its active stretch of six consecutive postseason berths is tied for the longest in Stanford history with a six-year run from 1997 to 2002.

2018 PAC-12 CHAMPIONS

  • Stanford won its fifth consecutive outright conference championship this season, a Pac-12 record, and sixth overall. Its 2018 conference title now sits on the mantle alongside championships from 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2001.
  • The Cardinal's league record during its five-year run of dominance is 37-5-8 and its overall record since 2014 is 77-14-18.
  • Jeremy Gunn is the only coach in league history to win more than two consecutive Pac-12 titles.

STREAKS

  • Marcel Zajac's goal for Akron in the 15th minute was the first Stanford had surrendered in tournament play since Dec. 5, 2015 at Wake Forest.
  • The Cardinal's NCAA-record postseason shutout streaks ended at 14 matches and 1,428:09 of match time.
  • It was Stanford's first NCAA tournament loss in 1,469 days and ended the program's 17-match postseason unbeaten run (12-0-5).
  • Its last tournament loss came at home in the second round on Nov. 23, 2014 to UC Irvine in overtime, 1-0. 
  • The 3-2 defeat to Akron was also Stanford's first when scoring at least two goals since Nov. 11, 2010 when it fell 3-2 at Cal.

PAIR NAMED ALL-AMERICANS

  • Tanner Beason and Amir Bashti were named United Soccer Coaches NCAA Division I All-Americans, the fifth consecutive season Stanford has had multiple players honored.
  • Beason earned a spot on the first team and Bashti the third team. With their selections, the Cardinal has accumulated 11 All-America honors since 2014.
  • Beason joined an exclusive list of Stanford first team All-Americans that includes Foster Langsdorf (2017), Tomas Hilliard-Arce (2016, 2017), Jordan Morris (2014, 2015), Brandon Vincent (2014, 2015), Bobby Warshaw (2009), Todd Dunivant (2002), Lee Morrison (2001), Ryan Nelsen (2000) and Jamie Clark (1998).

OFFENSE/DEFENSE

  • Stanford's passing and movement in the final third kicked into high gear with the start of league play. The Cardinal, which had scored seven goals in its first seven matches of the season while going 3-1-3, averaged 1.86 goals per game in the final 14 while going 9-3-2.
  • Defensively, the Cardinal was eighth in the country in team goals against average (0.625) and fifth in shutouts (12). It was the program's fourth straight year among the top-10 teams nationally in total defense.

CENTER BACK?

  • Tanner Beason, a central defender by trade, led the Pac-12 in both goals (6) and points (15) in conference matches and had career-high totals of eight goals and five assists this season.
  • He was a two-time Pac-12 Player of the Week and also a semifinalist for he MAC Hermann Trophy.

BASHTI COMES UP BIG

  • An All-Pac-12 first team pick, Bashti finished sixth in the league in scoring and fifth in points with a career-high seven goals and six assists this season.
  • The senior twice earned Pac-12 Player of the Week awards following a brace against Delaware on Sept. 16 and a two-goal, two-assist weekend to begin conference action in late September against San Diego State and UCLA.
  • Bashti played in 88 matches during his career, scored 19 goals and had 13 assists.

FRESHMAN FORWARD

  • Striker Zach Ryan led Stanford with 10 goals to go with three assists in his first season of action.
  • He was second in the conference in both scoring and points (23) and put in more goals than any Cardinal freshman since Jorge Titinger had 12 in 1980.
  • Ryan landed on the Top Drawer Soccer Freshmen Best XI second team and College Soccer News All-Freshman first team at the end of the year.

FIRST YEAR IN GOAL

  • Redshirt freshman Andrew Thomas had a superb first season in goal for the Cardinal, which finished eighth in the nation in team goals against average (0.625).
  • Thomas was ninth individually in that category with a conference-leading 0.626 goals against average and also was third in the country in save percentage (.854), sixth in solo shutouts (11) and 13th in total saves (82).
  • He made a career-high 11 stops in Stanford's third-round scoreless draw at Saint Mary's on Nov. 25 and stopped the Gaels' first penalty kick in the shootout, which the Cardinal eventually won 4-2.
  • Thomas earned spots on the Top Drawer Soccer Freshmen Best XI first team and College Soccer News All-Freshman first team at season's end.

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.

BOUNCING BACK

  • The Cardinal's loss to Pacific on Sept. 20 (1-0) was its first in 363 days. That result ended Stanford's program-record unbeaten streak at 21 consecutive matches and also snapped its 12-match home unbeaten run.
  • The defeat was Stanford's first since Sept. 23, 2017 at Saint Louis (2-0) and its first home loss since Sept. 9, 2017 against Tulsa (2-0).
  • Stanford still has not been beaten in two consecutive matches in the same season since 2012, Jeremy Gunn's first year as head coach. 

ALL-REGION

  • Stanford placed four seniors on the United Soccer Coaches NCAA Division I Men's All-Far West Region Teams for the fifth consecutive season.
  • Forward Amir Bashti, defender Tanner Beason and goalkeeper Andrew Thomas were first team selections and midfielder Logan Panchot earned a spot on the third team. It was the first all-region selection for each.

LEADING THE PAC

  • Stanford's Tanner Beason was named  Pac-12 Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, becoming the first in conference history to receive both honors.
  • The Pac-12's top defensive honor has been dominated by the Cardinal since it was first instituted in 2014 with Brandon Vincent (2014, 2015) and Tomas Hilliard-Arce (2016, 2017) each winning twice prior to Beason.
  • Redshirt senior Adam Mosharrafa was named the Pac-12 Men's Soccer Scholar-Athlete of the Year. He became Stanford's third men's soccer awardee, joining Brandon Vincent in 2015 and Bobby Warshaw in 2010.
  • A computer science major with a 3.52 GPA, Mosharrafa was a four-time Pac-12 All-Academic selection. In the spring he was awarded best senior group project in CS-210, a software project experience class, for Aerie-Tech, a platform that provides situational awareness to first responders by using autonomous drones to survey desired areas. Mosharrafa also interned as a software developer at Tophatter, a revolutionary e-commerce company, where he will work full-time starting in January. He graduated from Stanford at the end of the 2018 fall quarter with his degree in computer science specializing in human computer interaction.

ALL-PAC-12

  • Stanford placed seven on the Pac-12's various all-conference teams with Tanner Beason, Amir Bashti and Andrew Thomas landing on the first team.
  • Jared Gilbey and Zach Ryan were second-team selections while Logan Panchot and Charlie Wehan earned honorable mention accolades.
  • It was the sixth consecutive season Stanford has had at least seven players honored by the conference.

CONFINES OF CAGAN

  • Stanford went 7-3-2 at home in 2018 and has 44-6-10 (.817) record at Cagan Stadium since 2014 with a goals against average of 0.53.

TEAM ACADEMIC AWARD

  • Stanford was honored by United Soccer Coaches on Oct. 4 with the College Team Academic Award for the most recent academic year. The Cardinal posted a cumulative 3.38 GPA during 2017-18, which led the Pac-12 and tied for 19th among Division I schools.

SCHOLAR ALL-REGION AND ALL-AMERICA

  • Amir Bashti and Adam Mosharrafa were named to the United Soccer Coaches Scholar All-West Region team and were two of only three Pac-12 representatives on the 11-member squad.
  • Stanford has had multiple scholar all-west region honorees each of the past five seasons.
  • Bashti followed that up by landing United Soccer Coaches Scholar All-America first team accolades to become the 10th Stanford player to player to earn first-team academic All-America accolades from United Soccer Coaches and second under Knowles Family Director of Men's Soccer Jeremy Gunn, joining Andrew Epstein in 2016. Other Cardinal first teamers include Bobby Warshaw (2009), Scott Bolkan (2007), Todd Dunivant (2002), Johanes Maliza (2002), Ryan Nelsen (2000), Aaron Jones (1998), Eric Vandevelde (1997) and Dan Wytock (1997).
  • Bashti boasted a 3.45 cumulative GPA as a science, technology and society major.

COSIDA ACADEMIC AWARDS

  • Redshirt senior defender Collin Liberty has been named to the 2018 Academic All-America® Division I third team as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
  • Liberty's award is the ninth for a Stanford soccer player all-time and fourth under Knowles Family Director of Men's Soccer Jeremy Gunn. Andrew Epstein and Eric Verso were on the third team together in 2015 and Epstein followed that up with a first-team selection in 2016.
  • This honor was the 225th for a Stanford student-athlete all-time, fourth nationally among all schools and divisions.
  • Liberty played in a career-high 18 matches this season, primarily at right back, and made six starts. His first collegiate point came in his first career start this season in the conference opener against San Diego State and he added another on a Zach Ryan goal in the Cardinal's thrilling double-overtime victory at Washington on October 14.
  • A two-time Pac-12 all-academic first teamer, Liberty graduated with his bachelor's in management science and engineering last March and earned his master's in the same field in December.
  • Liberty and Amir Bashti were both voted CoSIDA Academic All-District in November.

BAKER'S DOZEN

  • For the seventh consecutive season under Jeremy Gunn and his staff, the Stanford men's soccer program had more than 10 of its student-athletes receive recognition from the conference for their combined work in the classroom and on the field when the Pac-12 announced its men's soccer all-academic squads.
  • Fourteen Cardinal were on this year's list (Collin Liberty, Andrew Thomas, Andrew Aprahamian, Amir Bashti, Arda Bulut, Adam Mosharrafa, Zach Ryan, Tanner Beason, Jared Gilbey, Marc Joshua, Jack O'Brien, Logan Panchot, Derek Waldeck, Charlie Wehan) matching a program-record from 2015 and the most in the league this year. Since Gunn took over in 2012, Stanford has collected a total of 87 Pac-12 All-Academic honors.

FOREIGN TOUR

  • The season began in earnest in late March, when 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 143,000 views on YouTube and debuted on Pac-12 Networks immediately following the match against San Jose State on August 24.

NEW LOOK, SAME STANFORD

  • A process-oriented bunch, Stanford headed 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 in 2017 (34 of 48).

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 were 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.

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.