On Sunday, No. 13 Stanford men’s soccer defeated Saint Mary’s at home by a final score of 4-1. Stanford forward Jackson Kiil, defender Louis Sterobo, forward Duncan Jarvie, and forward Shane de Flores scored for the Cardinal while Saint Mary’s defenseman Nick Strangio scored for the Gaels. Stanford improves to 3-1-0 while Saint Mary’s falls to 1-2-0.
BOX SCORE: Stanford vs. Saint Mary’s-Sunday, September 1st
“Just really disappointed about giving up the early goal,” Stanford head coach Jeremy Gunn said after the match. “I think it was just poor marking on a set piece and to me that’s just a level of alertness that we have to go into the game with and so we need to correct that.
“But everything else about the game I thought was really solid. I thought we scored some excellent goals. We moved the ball against a very stubborn defensive team that’s hard to play against, hard to compete against, and so Saint Mary’s very sharp at pressing and that they’re very good at knock downs, very good at the counterattacking moments, very good at threatening in the quick transitions and I thought we did really really well in negating everything that they had and against a team that it is sometimes tough to move the ball against.
“I thought we moved the ball quite well and so overall really pleased with the performance. It’s another great result. Another multigoal game. And can we just iron out just those little kinks so we can continue to be more and more solid.”
Both Stanford and Saint Mary’s got off to a hot start offensively. Stanford had corner kicks at 1:54 and 3:39 while Saint Mary’s had a corner kick at 4:57. Saint Mary’s would score first as Nick Strangio fired a shot at 5:54 only for Luke Lawrence to get the rebound and pass the ball back to Strangio, who was able to find the bottom of the left goal, getting it past Stanford goalkeeper Rowan Schnebly at 6:01.
Stanford was trying to argue with the official that the goal shouldn’t have counted due to the ball being kicked out of Schnebly’s hands after he secured the ball, but the official saw it differently. Down 0-1, Stanford needed to answer.
Rather than letting that goal by the Gaels bog them down, Stanford quickly responded as Jackson Kiil found the top left of the goal off an assist from Will Reilly at 8:39. It was now tied up 1-1.
“Nah, I mean, it’s simple,” Gunn said of their quick response. “There’s so many moments in games that you have to be the best at. The beginning of the game, you gotta be the best at. After a goal is scored you gotta be the best at. Just so many times you see in games a team is all over a team. They score and suddenly they’re in their own half; defending in their own box. And so I thought it was just a good next play mentality moment where we’ve let in a goal, disappointed, but we’ve immediately gone and attacked them. We’ve immediately got an opportunity and we scored a great goal. It was a great response very very quickly and so I think that helps a team settle and helps a team then go back to the original game plan and the way we wanted to play.”
The next corner kick of the match came for Stanford at 25:49. Shortly after, Stanford would get a throw in at 27:16 which would lead to a goal at 27:40 as Louis Sterobo found the bottom left of the goal off an assist from Dylan Groeneveld. Stanford was now up 2-1. Sterobo, a grad transfer from Saint Mary’s had a lot of fun scoring against his former team.
“I think it was really composed by Dylan Groeneveld,” Gunn said of Sterobo’s goal. “He brought the ball down and he set him up and he just put the ball perfectly on Louis’ left foot and it was a wonderful placement. It was very composed and he just slotted the ball home in wonderful fashion. And so, a great finish and a great goal.
“You know, against your old teammates, they kicked him right at the end and he probably deserved that, right? When you move on. But no, he’d been a very wonderful servant for Saint Mary’s and he had a great career and he graduated and so he was out of academics there and was available to come here and so yeah, for him I don’t know if it means more or less. I think every game gets played as it is and so you’d have to ask him what it means.”
“Yeah, we had the long throw, I was just trying to gauge where the ball was going at first,” Sterobo said of his goal. “It dumped down in front of Dylan Groeneveld and I thought he was gonna shoot to be honest. I didn’t think he was going to pass it to me and then when he did, I didn’t even have time to look up and luckily it went the way it did. Put it in the side net.
“Yeah, a lot of emotions at that point scoring against my old team but very cool feeling of course…It was fun. I mean, I definitely had a little extra butterflies today, but yeah just obviously when we’re on the field we’re on the field and I’m not really too worried about if I used to play with them or not. It’s all about winning and competing at that point for me. Very happy to get the win and good luck to them the rest of the year. I’m still rooting for them when they don’t play me…It’s really fun [to score as a defender]. It does not happen a lot. I didn’t score. I don’t even know if I scored last year. Maybe one goal? Never score with my feet. It’s always with my head, right?
“So, yeah I was almost as shocked as these guys when I scored I think and the ball went in the back of the net. But, yeah it’s so cool. Such a cool feeling scoring here at Cagan for the first time. Couldn’t be more happy.”
Stanford would not be done scoring in the half as Zach Bohane fired a shot that was blocked at 39:02 only for it to come to Duncan Jarvie, who was able to punch it in as he found the top right of the goal off his right foot. Zach Bohane and Fletcher Bank got credited with the assist. Not a bad birthday present for Jarvie. It was now a 3-1 lead for Stanford.
“He’s a fantastic finisher,” Gunn said of Jarvie. “He was injured an awful lot of the out of season time and that was a time when he really needed to be working hard and learning at the game. And then he was out at the beginning of the season and so he’s just behind on everything in his game, but he’s a great finisher and so fantastic emphatic finish. That’s what we expect him to be capable of doing and we just want him to keep growing and growing and growing so he can continue to add more and more to his game which we’re sure he will do.”
“Yeah, I mean, I don’t really know what happened to be honest,” Jarvie said of his goal. “I know Z-Bo was out on the right side. He tried to shoot it, got deflected, lucky bounce in the box. Just right place, right time I guess. Just lunged out and kinda side footed it, connected, and it was in the back of the net…Yeah, very good birthday present. I had my parents in town, too. 4-1 win. Scored a goal. Yeah. For sure…Not very much [do my parents get to watch me play]. They just decided to pick a weekend and come. So they got to see the two week games and yeah I ended up scoring a goal.
“Coming back from last year, I had an injury that put me out for several months and then going into preseason I actually had a concussion and so that kind of was a little setback there. It’s just about getting sharp. Keep getting more sharp every single day and getting better, enjoying it, not getting too frustrated or down on myself and just keep going.”
Stanford would stay in front 3-1 at halftime. The Cardinal were in a good position at halftime. They just needed to finish strong.
To Stanford’s credit, they were able to finish the match strong as Saint Mary’s did not find the back of the net at all in the second half. Stanford however would tack on one more goal as Shane de Flores was able to place the ball in the top right of the goal off an assist from Bohane at 66:05 right after a corner kick. 4-1 would be the final score.
“I think the guys up front have started working really well together,” Sterobo said. “We played a lot of different players. Some people have been out a little bit. Have this and that. But yeah, just I think we’ve gotten some new additions that have helped push the people in front, which pushes them to actually have to produce if you want to play on the field and that’s all great. All part of the competition on the team. But it’s all love, really. So, I love it.”
For Stanford, this was a nice win. After giving up an early goal, they quickly tied things up and was able to build a comfortable lead before halftime. On top of that, they played strong in the second half and added to their lead. Overall, the Cardinal seemed pleased with the way they played though they would have liked to have walked out with a shutout.
Up next for Stanford is a road match at No. 1 Clemson on Friday, September 6th at 4:00 PM PT. That will be the first match of ACC play for the Cardinal.
“It’s our first conference game early in the season,” Gunn said of facing Clemson. “And so no, we get to enjoy this moment and then we get the day off and then we’ll be getting ready to head out to South Carolina.”
“Yeah, I mean, it’ll be a fun one,” Jarvie added. “We’re ready to compete. Ready to fight. Ready to take it to them. It’s gonna be a fun road trip. We’ll see what happens. I’m optimistic that it’ll be a great test.”
Note: Following Sunday's win, Stanford moves back up to No. 5 in the United Soccer Coaches Poll.
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