STANFORD, Calif. - No. 1 Stanford won its sixth straight game on Wednesday night, taking down UC Davis 1-0 in a physical battle at Cagan Stadium. It was the Cardinal’s third straight shutout and the team’s fourth of the season.
Stanford moves to 7-1 on the season while UC Davis falls to 4-2-1.
“I thought it was a really good game,” said the Knowles Family Director of Men’s Soccer Jeremy Gunn. “Davis is a team that plays well with their tails up and they were a really difficult opponent and unlike anyone we’ve faced this year.”
The Cardinal took on a stout UC Davis defense that had only lost once heading into Wednesday night and conceded only six goals on the season. Each team brought intensity to the pitch, and it was evident from the very first whistle as 26 fouls were called throughout the 90 minutes.
“UC Davis is very strong physically and they really load up the back line,” explained Gunn. “They’re very good at their style of play that asks a lot of questions of our defenders.”
Each team generated chances, but it was Stanford who had more opportunities in the first half, launching six shots compared to one for the Aggies.
“From tonight, the huge positives were I thought defensively, we had a great night against a difficult opponent, and Rowan made a couple of key saves,” said Gunn. “So everybody in the defensive portion of the team gets absolutely full marks for how they were against a very tough, attacking threat.”
The Cardinal continued to stifle Davis attacks into the second half, but The Aggies found a few opportunities to fire a shot on goal. In each instance, Rowan Schnebly was equal to it.
The redshirt sophomore keeper came up with four clutch saves, including a one-on-one save against a Davis forward and a diving save to push out a glancing header.
“I was really happy with how composed we were on the ball,” added Gunn. “When a team hits the ball at you a lot, it’s sometimes tough to get the ball down and go from super fast paced to composed. I was excited with how composed we were and how well we passed it.”
Stanford continued to apply the pressure in the second half, firing six more shots to test the Davis keeper, but it wasn’t until the 85th minute that the Cardinal found the breakthrough.
Dylan Hooper played a perfect long ball to the feet of Fletcher Bank, who flew down the left flank and sent in a cross right to the center of the box. Duncan Jarvie headed the ball, sending it to the back of the net well out of reach of the Aggies’ goalkeeper.
Jarvie’s three goals are a career-best mark, topping his two from last year. This season, he’s averaging one goal every 30 minutes of game time.
“We created good chances that on another night could have gone in,” said Gunn. “The only thing I would have looked at would have been different types of services that would have taken their goalkeeper out of the equation. Just very pleased with the overall performance against a very good team.”
The Cardinal held off UC Davis for the remainder of the game to earn its seventh win of the season. Stanford returns to action on Sunday against Duke for the first home ACC game of the year.