STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford was locked in a defensive battle with Saint Mary's, but dropped a tight bout in double overtime, 1-0, on Monday night at Cagan Stadium. Stanford moves to 3-4-1 overall with the result, while the Gaels improve to 7-3.
Stanford held the lead in shots throughout the contest, finishing at 15-10. Stanford forced five saves from the Saint Mary's netminder, while Matt Frank came up with three saves on the defensive end.
"It appears to be the story of our season thus far that we've started brightly, been in command, created some great chances and just not quite managed to capitalize," said The Knowles Family Director of Men's Soccer Jeremy Gunn. "As a result, our opponents get to ease their way into the game and manage to sometimes hang in there and just be a little bit more opportunistic than we've been."
The Cardinal had a trio of opportunities in the opening minutes, led by a header from Noah Adnan just a minute into the contest that flew inches wide. The Cardinal controlled the game in the second period, aside from a defensive lapse that forced a brilliant save from Frank to keep the game scoreless. Keegan Hughes nearly gave Stanford the lead in the 81st minute, but his header was saved.
"We created some awesome chances," added Gunn. "It's tough, because I'm happy with the way we were playing, we're just missing that incisive touch around the goal at the moment."
After a scoreless first overtime, Saint Mary's scored the game-winning goal in double overtime in the 106th minute, firing home immediately following a corner kick.
"Obviously bitterly disappointed and upset afor the players after they've worked hard in a game. To get the result like that, it's just extremely frustrating."
"What we can do is get better, move forward and get excited to return back to some incredibly tough conference games coming up."
Stanford returns to action on Sunday, Oct. 3 at home against rival California. Kickoff is set for 5 p.m. on Pac-12 Network.
