CORVALLIS, Ore. – No. 5 Stanford extended its unbeaten run to seven with a 0-0 draw at Oregon State on Thursday night.
The result moved the Cardinal (12-1-3, 5-1-2) to 17 points in its chase for a sixth consecutive league championship. Stanford plays at No. 1 Washington (14-1-0, 7-0-0) on Sunday at 2 p.m. The Huskies are currently matched against Cal (6-5-3, 2-3-2) and a win for UW would win them the Pac-12 title outright.
"It was a fantastic game of soccer and opened up more as the game went on," Knowles Family Director of Men's Soccer Jeremy Gunn said. "We had a couple of great chances to win the game and they did as well, but on the night both keepers deserve plaudits for keeping clean sheets. We are very happy with the shutout and at the same time a little bit frustrated that we couldn't quite find that winning goal."
It was a chess match between the Cardinal and Beavers at Paul Lorenz Field, with neither side securing much of a foothold or generating a plethora of chances. There were zero shots on goal in the first half and the game's first save didn't come until the 65th minute when Will Richmond's service into the box was touched by Arda Bulut, but gobbled up by OSU keeper Adrian Fernandez.
In the 73rd minute, Oregon State defender Arnaud Deniel came up from his spot on the back line and one-hopped his shot into the arms of Andrew Thomas, the first time Stanford's keeper was called upon.
Thomas came up huge in the first overtime when a Beaver cross slid through three Stanford defenders and over to Eric Diaz. Diaz cut it back to the center of the box and fired off a shot with his left that Thomas dove to knock down at the near post.
In the 109th minute, Gloire Amanda had a chance from the top of the box, but freshman center back Keegan Hughes slid to the turf with his hands behind his back to deflect the attempt up and over the crossbar and preserve the clean sheet for the Cardinal.
Stanford put a pair of its six shots on frame. In addition to Bulut's touch in the second half, Logan Panchot had a shot saved by Fernandez in the 103rd minute.
"If you isolated the game apart from what 's going on with the conference tonight, it was an excellent road performance against a very, very good team," Gunn added. "In that respect, we have to be happy with how the team competed and how the team played."
The Cardinal started its season by going unbeaten in its first eight matches (7-0-1) before it suffered its only defeat to Washington on Oct. 3. Stanford has gone 5-1-1 since.
