LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Jordan Morris scored the Cardinal's first goal of 2015 and Andrew Epstein notched his sixth career shutout to lead the No. 8 Stanford men's soccer team to a 1-0 road victory over No. 18 Louisville on Monday night.
"I'm extremely happy with the result, but happier with the overall performance and strength the team showed tonight," Stanford head coach Jeremy Gunn said. "It was a tremendous game of soccer between two very good teams. Chances were at a premium and either side could have won. In all fairness, we just edged it. If it were a boxing match we might have earned the decision six rounds to four."
The Cardinal (1-1-0, 0-0-0 Pac-12) returns to The Farm for its home opener against Northeastern on Friday, September 4 at 7 p.m. It's the first of three straight matches at Cagan Stadium, ahead of Pac-12 Networks broadcasts on Sunday, September 6 against VCU ( 3 p.m.) and Thursday, September 10 against San Jose State (6 p.m.).
Season tickets, mini plans and single-game seats are available by visiting gostanford.com/tickets or calling 800-STANFORD.
"The complex and facilities Louisville has created are absolutely the gold standard of college soccer," Gunn added. "The setup is truly incredible. But we're excited to come home and hoping that people want to come out and see this group that we have. They're playing great soccer and it should be an exciting stretch of games."
TURNING POINT: In the 81st minute, Stanford's Ty Thompson gathered the ball just past the midline and fed a streaking Jordan Morris down the center of the field to the top of the box. Morris outmuscled defender Tim Kubel for possession, took one touch and beat Louisville's (1-1-0, 0-0-0 ACC) charging keeper, Nick Jeffs, top right.
JEREMY GUNN: "That was a wonderful through ball from Thommo [Thompson] and the finish was tremendous as well. I'm so happy for Jordan. He has been working hard coming back from an injury, which can be frustrating. It wasn't just a great reward for all the work he did tonight, but also everything he has done the past couple of weeks."
NEWS AND NOTES: The goal was Morris' 11th of his career and for the senior Thompson the assist was his seventh. Epstein registered his sixth solo shutout in his 21st career start.
Great team win! #GoStanford pic.twitter.com/tjUPt1EESj
— StanfordMen'sSoccer (@StanfordMSoccer) September 1, 2015
FIRST HALF CHANCES: Stanford forced Nick Jeffs into a pair of saves in the opening 45 minutes. In the 14th, Eric Verso took one of the Cardinal's four corner kicks and ended up with the ball at the corner of the box. His shot from 20-yards out was punched away. Twenty minutes later Morris tried a flick with the outside of his right foot from 25-out, but Jeffs grabbed the ball mid-flight for the save.
STRENGTH IN THE SECOND: Louisville continued to pressure the Cardinal in the second half. The Cardinals earned their first corner in the 60th minute and in the 71st Sawyer Edwards' header hit the crossbar for Louisville's first shot on frame. Immediately preceding Morris' mark, Johnathon Wright got his head on the end of another that sailed just high.
STAT SHEET: Louisville outshot the Cardinal 8-5, but only managed to put the two on target to Stanford's three. Each team earned four corner kicks. Stanford was called offside seven times while the flag never went up for Louisville.
BOUNCING BACK: The Cardinal, which was coming off a 1-0 defeat to UCSB in its season opener on Friday, has not dropped back-to-back games in the same season since the end of September 2012 in Jeremy Gunn's first season at Stanford. That year, it lost in overtime to LMU (2-1) on September 21 and started Pac-12 play with a setback against No. 9 UCLA (3-1) on September 28.
JEREMY GUNN II: "We're never in doubt with what we're doing. Games are going to be tight and easily won or lost. The players have bought in 100%. Results like this make them happy when they see how well they played and the corresponding reward."