STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford showed no signs of rust following a 10-day break between matches as the No. 5 Cardinal beat visiting San Francisco 2-0 on Wednesday night.
Stanford (10-1-2) scored twice in less than a minute midway through the first half to get the goals it would need to move to 10-1-1 in its last 12 games against the Dons (2-9-1). The first came on a set piece, with freshman Keegan Hughes heading home senior Derek Waldeck's service at the back post in the 26th minute.
"I was really, really happy with the first half and how we passed and moved the ball," Knowles Family Director of Men's Soccer Jeremy Gunn said. "I thought we were crisp and we were tough to play against. We were moving the ball and creating chances and that's what we'd been working on. It was fluid and purposeful and we scored a couple of goals from it."
Thirty-five seconds later, Zach Ryan flicked a ball on frame with the outside of his right foot from nearly 25 yards that hit off a USF defender, found its way through a crowd and into the back of goal. It was the redshirt sophomore's team-leading fifth score of the season.
"That's how it can go," Gunn added of Ryan's goal. "Other days you'll have five chances and score four goals. That's soccer and that's why it's such an unpredictable game and why it's so exciting."
The Cardinal fired off 20 shots, put six on target and had a number of chances to put the game even more out of reach in the second half, including a Hughes header that pounded the crossbar off another Waldeck corner in the 89th minute.
The shutout was the third in a row for Stanford following a three-game stretch in which it surrendered six combined goals to UC Santa Barbara, Washington and Oregon State. The Cardinal now has eight clean sheets on the year and has let in eight goals.
"There are always going to be chances and there are always going to be goals," Gunn said of the defense. "But today, the good defending in the first half came from playing great soccer. In the second half we had to do a bit more defending, but still weren't really opened up that much."
Stanford can now fully focus on the remainder of conference play, with five Pac-12 matches left to close out the regular season. The Cardinal is on 10 points (3-1-1), five shy of Washington (5-0-0), which heads to UCLA and San Diego State this weekend.
"We've gone through this part of the season and we've put ourselves in a tremendous spot," Gunn commented. "We get another week now to prepare for the big push of five conference games and we'll regroup from this one and continue to sharpen the tools. It is the second half of conference, but really we just get to focus on the game next Thursday night against San Diego State."
