Another weekend, another pair of wins for Stanford men’s soccer (11-1-1, 4-0-1 Pac-12), extending the team’s unbeaten streak to 12 games, its second-best streak in program history.

The team, ranked third in the nation, ended the weekend with two wins over conference foes UCLA (7-6-0, 3-2-0) and San Diego State (6-5-2, 1-4-0), but perhaps more telling was who emerged to lead the Cardinal to victory.

Junior forward Jordan Morris, who had missed the previous three games because he was playing with the U.S. U-23 team in the Olympic Qualifiers, proved once again why he’s one of the best players in the nation as well as one of the Cardinal’s strongest weapons moving forward. In addition, sophomore midfielder Corey Baird notched his first two goals of the season in a brace against SDSU, becoming Stanford’s ninth player to have scored at least one goal through its first 13 games.

The Cardinal’s win against UCLA was also the first win the program has ever earned in Westwood, as well as the first against the Bruins since 2010.

Stanford got on the board first when forward Amir Bashti shot a ball, which a Bruins defender initially had attempted to head away, off his chest and past goalie Juan Cervantes. It was the freshman’s second goal in two consecutive games and in his career and also counted as the first career point for senior forward Adrian Alabi. Alabi had not seen playing time during his first three seasons on The Farm but has begun to be a more consistent part of head coach Jeremy Gunn’s substitution rotations.

The Bruins, who had a 4-3 shot advantage at half, continued their aggressive attack after intermission and scored the equalizer off a goal from forward Abu Danladi just a few minutes after gameplay resumed. Yet Morris ensured that the Cardinal would leave Westwood with the victory, as he sent a bullet from outside the box to the far post, putting Stanford up by a one-point margin that it would maintain for the rest of the night — albeit controversially. An offsides call on a player not involved with the play negated a goal from UCLA’s Jose Hernandez in the 85th minute, which would have likely sent the game into overtime.

While the Cardinal did not clearly dominate Friday’s game — in terms of possession and other telling statistics (shots on goal, for example) — the team had a much more convincing 3-1 win two days later against San Diego State.

Although SDSU struck first with a goal from Jeroen Meefout, off of a botched clearance attempt, Morris and Baird would not let the Cardinal stay down for long, as both scored less than 10 minutes later and within 45 seconds of each other to put Stanford up for good. Another goal from Baird in the 55th minute gave extra wiggle room to Stanford, but the team would not need it, as none of SDSU’s five shots for the rest of the game would make it past junior goalie Andrew Epstein and Stanford’s strong backline.

Baird’s brace included his first goals of the season, but the midfielder is one of two people (the other being fifth-year senior Eric Verso) with the most assists on the team (7).

This upcoming weekend the Cardinal will host UCLA and SDSU and seek to beat them both again to remain undefeated in conference play. Stanford will take on the Bruins on Friday, Oct. 23, at 8 p.m. and SDSU on Monday, Oct. 26, at 7 p.m.

 

Contact Alexa Philippou at aphil723 ‘at’ stanford.edu.