SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Freshman Ousseni Bouda put in the winner with a strike from 25 yards early in the second half and No. 7 Stanford swept its Southern California road swing with a 1-0 victory over San Diego State on Sunday afternoon.
The Cardinal (9-1-2, 3-1-1), which had gone winless in its three games prior to the trip, won both games at UCLA and San Diego State (3-7-1, 0-5-0) for the third consecutive season. Stanford has an extended layoff and will be back in action next Wednesday, Oct. 23 when it hosts San Francisco at 7 p.m.
"It was a great result," Knowles Family Director of Men's Soccer Jeremy Gunn said. "To come on this road trip and get two wins and two shutouts was tremendous. We're halfway through conference and now we can draw a line and can regroup after a tough stretch. We've had a fantastic start and now will really look to consolidate our positions and push forward."
An efficient Cardinal attack put five of its nine shots on target and forced San Diego State keeper Max Watkin into four saves. The one that broke through was a rocket from Bouda to the upper left corner from well beyond the box after a breakaway. The goal was the freshman's fourth of the season to tie Zach Ryan and Gabe Segal for the team lead. Bouda leads the Cardinal with 12 points through the season's first 12 games.
Stanford moved to 13-0-3 all-time against the Aztecs under Knowles Family Directory of Men's Soccer Jeremy Gunn and has now beaten SDSU by a combined score of 15-0 in the past five meetings.
"We played very well today," Gunn said. "We passed and moved the ball and created a couple of good scoring chances that we couldn't quite capitalize on in the first half. We knew we were in a battle, but felt like we were also in a decent spot. It look liked it was going to be a one-goal game, we scored a great one and then had to manage the game out. I'm really proud of the team for finding their way through a good, 1-0 win on the road."
Cardinal goalkeeper Andrew Thomas secured his fourth solo shutout of the season and Stanford collected its seventh overall clean sheet in lowering its goals against average to 0.63.
"We have some new faces in the back line and for them to keep two shutouts was absolutely awesome," Gunn added "Our defenders did a wonderful job in both games this weekend and our midfielders really stepped up. Jared Gilbey and Derek Waldeck led the way in important positions and Cam Cilley came on and was fantastic. There were some great performances all around."
