SAN JOSE, Calif. - No. 4 Stanford captured its third straight win of the 2023 season on Monday, taking down San Jose State 2-0. The Cardinal improved to 3-0 on the year after and 1-0 away from home.
"I'm just really impressed with the performance tonight," said The Knowles Family Director of Men's Soccer Jeremy Gunn. "San Jose State has some wonderful soccer players and they really move the ball well."
The contest was a battle from the first whistle, as the Bay Area rivals each brought energy to the pitch. Throughout the first 15 minutes, only two shots for either team were registered as players on each side battled for possession and the front foot in the match.
"The game wasn't going quite perfect for us and yet we really showed a toughness tonight," said Gunn. "As you go through the season, you always want top performances. On the first weekend, it was top performances in every way, but we always had our noses in front and we were always playing well in those games."
The search for the first goal went beyond the first 30 minutes of play, 10 minutes longer than Stanford's first goal in either of the first two matches of the season. Then, in the 32nd minute, Jackson Kiil provided the breakthrough for the Cardinal, slotting home a great run of play from Will Reilly and Zach Bohane to put Stanford in the driver seat.
"Tonight, it was the first of the season where things weren't quite clicking and we weren't playing as well, but we showed a toughness where even though we weren't playing great attacking soccer, we were absolutely rock-solid defensively," added Gunn. "I'm not even sure if Rowan had a save to make tonight. I'm just really pleased about the steel in the team, that's another exciting element you want to be able to show."
In the second half, the match continued to show the traits of a rivalry game as each team received yellow cards and 32 total fouls were registered. In the 73rd minute, a San Jose State player was handed his second yellow card, forcing the hosts to play with 10 men the remainder of the game.
Immediately following the card, Connor Evans linked up with Shane de Flores to provide an insurance goal, putting Stanford up 2-0 in the 75th minute.
"I'm really pleased with the overall performance of everybody today in a very tough game," said Gunn. "It was difficult, it was chippy, the tackles were flying in, and I just felt it was a really good resilience and showing of maturity on a night where I'd concede we didn't play quite as attractively."
Stanford's defense played with dominance all match long, holding the Spartans to only three shots against the Cardinal's 18. Stanford also held San Jose State without a single shot on target.
Rowan Schnebly earned his first career start in goal, playing the full 90 minutes and earning the clean sheet. Noah Adnan and Dylan Hooper anchored the back as well, helping the Cardinal to its first shutout of 2023.
Stanford returns to action on the road again at UC Irvine on Friday at 6 p.m.