On Sunday, No. 13 Stanford men’s soccer defeated No. 4 Denver 2-1 in an epic match at Cagan, that went down to the wire. Jack Pymm (20:19) and Zach Bohane (74:02) scored for the Cardinal while Ian Welch(50:04) scored the lone goal for the Pioneers. Rowan Schnebly was the winning goalkeeper for the Cardinal, playing all 90 minutes with two saves and one goal allowed. Isaac Nehme was the losing goalkeeper for the Pioneers, giving up two goals while totaling five saves. Stanford improves to 2-0 on the season while Denver falls to 1-1.
BOX SCORE: Denver at Stanford-Sunday, August 24th
“First of all, I think this is an amazing game and everybody watching must have just had an incredible time,” Stanford head coach Jeremy Gunn said after the match. “What a fantastic game of soccer. And I think going back, I was just so impressed with how well we played in the first half. We were just so dominant against a very very good team and you know, we were creating chances, we were completely nullifying whatever they were trying to do, and I was just so so proud of how we played in that first period.
“And then of course, you know, we give away a goal and they’re now excited and then you really got to see the quality of them and you got to see lots of good attacking moments from them as well. But all through our game, we kept working, we kept competing, and then we kept showing some wonderful free flowing soccer.
“We always looked like we had a goal in this and so when we’d managed to get the go-ahead goal at 2-1, I think it was going to be a fair result and then how it was going to be a tough one if we tied 2-2. I mean, it’s a great game that can go either way, but I really felt that we were deserving in the game and so fantastic for Rowan to come up with the big penalty save and in the end I felt it was justified. You know, I felt overall, it was a tight, tight game with two great teams. Either team can win, but I think we deserved it on the day today.”
In the first half, Stanford got their first corner kick at 10:24. That didn’t lead to a goal, but they did a good job out of the gates of getting shots off and putting pressure on the Denver defense. At the 20:19 mark, Stanford’s relentless attack was finally rewarded with a goal as Jack Pymm found the bottom right of the goal off his left foot, giving them a 1-0 lead.
Stanford would then get a corner kick at 23:14, applying even more pressure on Denver. That didn’t lead to a goal, but Stanford continued to send the message that they were here to play. The score would remain 1-0 at halftime as Stanford was outshooting them 12-1. Though it was only a one goal match, Stanford was clearly doing more to give themselves opportunities to score.
Denver would even up the match 1-1 at 50:04 as Ian Welch found the top right of the goal off his right foot thanks to an assist from Kyle McGowan. Despite not having nearly as many shots as Stanford, Denver was right back in this match all tied up.
Stanford then got corner kicks at 62:29 and 69:48, continuing to apply the pressure. Neither led to goals, but the Cardinal did not take their foot off the gas. At 74:02, Stanford would get their second goal of the match as Zach Bohane found the top left of the goal off his left foot thanks to an assist from Shane de Flores. Up 2-1 with under 20 minutes to go, Stanford just needed to finish strong.
“Kind of blanked a bit, but somehow the ball got kicked to Shane. I don’t know who did it and then Shane beat his man and then did a lovely pullback and just got on the end of it and I think took it a deflection and then went through the keeper’s legs,” Bohane recalled. “But it was just pure, pure passion and pure grit from the team. It was a tough game and we got out of it and that was all credit to my teammates who put me in that situation.”
Stanford would get a corner kick at 76:05 to apply more pressure and then Denver finally got their first corner kick of the match at 78:32. That would lead to a hand ball call against Dylan Groeneveld at 78:56, setting up a penalty kick for the Pioneers. McGowan attempted the penalty kick for the Pioneers only for it to be saved in the bottom left of the net by Schnebly. That kept it a 2-1 lead for the Cardinal.
“Yeah, I mean, he’s a buddy of mine and we played growing up together,” Schnebly said of facing McGowan. “To be honest, it’s been a long time since I’ve played with him, so I kind of just went with my gut. I was like, he’s right-footed. There’s a good chance he’s going across his body and yeah, I went with it and you know, I guessed the right way and lucky to make the save…you try to read their body a little bit, but there’s not much you can do at the end of the day. And so, there’s a bit of, I guessed. I guessed he right way and thankfully made the save.”
“Well, again, it comes back to look, whether they score or not, we’ve got another goal in us and so we can score,” Gunn said of what his message was going into the penalty kick. “So, let’s not get despondent. The game is going to go back and forth when you play against great teams. You’re gonna land some punches and they’re gonna land some punches. And so the talk at that moment was always going to be I don’t care what happens on the penalty. Let’s keep playing. Let’s go score another goal, you know?
From there, Stanford would be able to hang on to win 2-1 as Denver was unable to score on their best chance of the night. The Cardinal were fired up. Especially Schnebly, who was on cloud nine after that save on the penalty kick.
“Well, we keep fighting,” Gunn said. “And, you know, we can never guarantee that we’ll complete a pass. We’ll never guarantee we’ll play well. But we really focus on guaranteeing that that we’re going to work hard and we’re going to show an incredible ethic for every player on the pitch and put the work in for your teammates and then when you work together like we do, it ends up looking pretty impressive and makes us really tough to play against. So yeah, super proud of how we played tonight. I thought we were fantastic tonight.”
“Oh my God, you never know with Rowan,” Bohane said with a laugh. “He just, he has it up his sleeve and I kind of had that feeling he was going to save it. I probably wouldn’t have said that in the moment, but he’s such a good keeper and I know he’s always got our back and every time we give up a penalty, I’m just like yeah, Rowan’s got our back. So, he did against UCSB and you know he has that in him. So you can’t count us out when there’s a penalty against us.”
For Stanford, this is a huge win. Denver is a top-five team who reached the Final Four last season and defeated Stanford 1-0 in their meeting last season. To get even with them this time around has to feel good given how good of a team they are.
“Yeah, you know, and the early season rankings, you never know actually what they mean,” Gunn admitted. “They’re a starting point from the season before and so I never read too much into the early season rankings, but I can see with my own eyes, that’s a very very good team. They’ve got so many wonderful pieces. They’re so rock solid defensively and we managed to carve at them, but they defend the penalty box very very well. They’re fantastic with their blocks and stopping chances where they would be goals, if not saves.
“And then they’ve got some really exciting attacking players that mean that they only need a moment. They can carve out a chance even when they’re under pressure. And so regardless of rankings, I know that they’ve got another great team again and they’ll definitely do some damage this season.”
Up next for Stanford is a road match at Santa Clara on Thursday, August 28th. That will begin at 7:30 PM PT on ESPN+.
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