STANFORD, Calif. — Two goals in two minutes by Virginia in the second half handed No. 6 Stanford a stunning 3-2 loss at Cagan Stadium on Friday evening.
The Cardinal (7-2-1, 0-2-1 ACC) was on the front foot for the majority of the contest, but untimely bounces in favor of the Cavaliers led to a second consecutive loss for Stanford.
It marked just the third time under Knowles Family Director of Men's Soccer Jeremy Gunn that Stanford has lost when scoring two or more goals in a match, and the first since a 3-2 road defeat at Oregon State on April 10, 2021. The Cardinal is 129-3-16 in such matches.
"I'm pleased with our performance in so many ways," Gunn said. "We really dominated the game in so many departments other than the one that matters. So, it's a disappointing result but such an encouraging performance."
Virginia opened the scoring in the 16th minute against the run of play, with transition passes from Marco Dos Santos and Alex Parvu leading to a Brendan Lambe attack that deflected off a Cardinal defender and into the back of the net.
Stanford continued to apply pressure throughout the remainder of the half, forcing five saves from the Virginia goalkeeper while also earning four corner kicks, but the Cardinal headed into the locker room trailing by a goal.
Jack Pymm appeared to have found the equalizer just moments into the second half when his shot sailed beyond the goalkeeper but was cleared off the goal line by a Cavaliers defender.
Moments later, however, the Cardinal earned its opportunity when Dillon Logan was taken down inside the box, sending Stanford to the penalty spot. Once again, Pymm stepped up and delivered, converting his fourth penalty kick of the season to draw the Cardinal level.
Stanford pulled ahead in the 60th minute when Timothy Fortier poked a pass to Yujin Kikuchi, who fired a right-footed finish from outside the box into the top-right corner for the first goal of his collegiate career.
From there, the match unraveled for the Cardinal as a pair of Virginia moments flipped the script. In the 72nd minute, an aerial contest on a Cavaliers set piece resulted in an inadvertent Stanford handball, sending Dos Santos to the spot. The Virginia midfielder converted into the bottom-right corner to bring the match level at 2-2.
Then, in the 74th minute, a free kick from Virginia's Samuel Oulouheu from a difficult angle was sent into the box, where it took another bounce off the home side and found its way into the net to put the Cavaliers ahead.
Suddenly down a goal, Stanford searched for the equalizer until the final whistle, including a last-ditch header from Alex Chow that was saved by Virginia goalkeeper Caleb Tunks as time expired to seal the Cardinal's fate.
The Cardinal finished the contest with a 26-4 edge in shots, putting nine of those attempts on frame. Stanford also generated 12 corner kicks to the Cavaliers' zero.
Stanford will look to get back on track next Friday when it travels back to the East Coast to take on Duke on Oct. 2 at 4 p.m. PT.