Thrilling Match Ends in Agony

Women's soccer falls to Stanford in double overtime Sydney Sanchez THE SANTA CLARA September 26, 2013 [dropcap]C[/dropcap]oming off a double-overtime draw with University of California, Berkeley earlier last week, the Broncos faced another battle Sunday against the Stanford University Cardinal in front of a packed house of over 3,000 people at Buck Shaw Stadium. Despite not scoring during the run of play, the No. 2 Cardinal brought down the No. 22 Broncos with three goals off free kicks, winning by the final score of 3-2. The loss put the Broncos at 4-3-1 on the season while elevating Stanford to 7-0-1. “During the run of play, which is 90 percent of the game, we feel like we did very well,” said Santa Clara Head Coach Jerry Smith. “The 10 percent of the game that is dead balls, we did not do well. We made silly fouls and allowed them to have three dead-ball goals against us. I think in the run of play we were mostly pleased. Dead balls, we fell short of what we needed to do today.”Stanford stormed into BuckShaw Stadium and opened the game with an early goal by Courtney Verloo. She would be the only Cardinal scorer of the night, tallying two more goals later in the match to earn a hat trick. Verloo took the free kick from just outside the box and the ball soared into the corner of the net for the first goal of the match. Santa Clara senior Julie Johnston answered Stanford with an unassisted goal of her own in the 17th minute to put the Broncos on the board. The shot was a low drive and Johnston’s fifth goal of the season.Santa Clara had a chance late in the first half to take the first lead of the night after Morgan Marlborough was able to dribble the ball to the left side of the box and take a shot at the goal. However, she misfired and sent the ball wide right and out of play. The half ended after another wide shot by Marlborough. Santa Clara outshot Stanford 9-7 in the first half, but Stanford had the upper hand, 6-2 for shots on goal. After a shaky and scoreless beginning to the second half, Santa Clara took the lead for the first time in the 83rd minute. Junior forward Sofia Huerta gained control of the ball in the corner of the box and fired the ball into the left side of the net. A foul in the Santa Clara box in the final minute of regular time resulted in a free kick and a second goal by Stanford’s Verloo to tie the game and push it into overtime.“Really, we needed to manage about 40 more seconds of time,” said Smith. “And we didn’t do that very well. We made a silly foul in the box that allowed them to score the goal off the free kick and tie the game and take it to overtime.”The first overtime was scoreless and evenly matched.Stanford took over during the second overtime with four shots on goal compared to none by Santa Clara. In the 105th minute, Stanford’s Taylor Uhl slipped through Santa Clara’s defense and fired a shot on goal that was saved by goalkeeper Andi Tostanoski, keeping the Broncos in the game. A foul just outside the Broncos’ box gave Stanford another free kick that Verloo used to give Stanford the eventual game-winning goal in the 108th minute.Despite the loss, Santa Clara had an impressive night. Huerta notched her second goal of the season and Tostanoski racked up 10 saves. Santa Clara’s head coach took away some positive aspects after the tough defeat. “We didn’t allow them to score a goal during the run of play,” said Smith. “Stanford’s got some good players, so for them to not be able to score on us is good. We scored two goals on them in the run of play. We feel good about that.”Smith also attributed part of Santa Clara’s struggle to last Thursday’s game, another gritty double overtime contest against Cal. “When you play back-to-back tough games within a short period of time, what happened in the previous game can make a big difference,” said Smith. “We played Cal Berkeley, a top-15 team (and tied), and Stanford had a 5-0 victory. I was proud that the team gave good energy out there but we’re very disappointed in the result today for sure. It’s a game we felt we should have won.”Santa Clara will continue their season Friday and Sunday with two home games at Buck Shaw Stadium against the University of Kansas and California Polytechnic State University. Contact Sydney Sanchez at ssanchez@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.