By Gregory Block on October 24, 2017

It was another week and another dominant road trip for the No. 6 Stanford men’s soccer (12-2-1, 6-0-1 Pac-12) as it cruised to victories over No. 21 Washington (10-5-1, 3-3-1) on Thursday and Oregon State (5-10, 2-5) on Sunday. The Cardinal finished their 2017 conference road schedule with an unblemished 5-0 record for the first time in school history.

The Washington game was the headliner of this road trip just a week after the two teams played to a dramatic extra-time 1-1 draw at Cagan Stadium. Much like their match on Oct. 12, Thursday’s battle between the Cardinal and Huskies started out with a bang. Only this week, it was the Cardinal who came out firing, scoring two goals in the first 13 minutes on their way to the 2-1 win in Seattle.

It was an explosive start for the Cardinal just a week after their sluggish play in the first few minutes allowed the Huskies to score early and stay in the match. After last week’s match, both Stanford coaches and players lamented their lethargic start as the reason for the draw, but they seemed to fix those problems on Thursday.

Junior forward Amir Bashti got the scoring started for the Cardinal with a goal in the eighth minute. After junior midfielder Sam Werner put a service from the left sideline into the box, senior midfielder Bryce Marion sent a firecracker at Huskies keeper Seif Kerawala, whose save ricocheted directly to Bashti in the center of the box. From there, Bashti rocketed a shot into the back of the net to give the Cardinal an early lead.

The Huskies responded immediately. Following the goal, Washington senior defenseman Justin Fiddes brought the ball up the field and fired a perfect cross to senior forward Kyle Coffee, who tapped the ball past Stanford keeper Nico Corti to tie the game in the ninth minute.

But Stanford seemed motivated to avoid another draw. Three minutes later, on a free kick from senior midfielder Sam Werner, senior defender Tomas Hilliard-Arce was able to head the ball back to senior forward Foster Langsdorf, who knocked it in to put the Cardinal up for good.

The Cardinal had a variety of opportunities to pad their lead in the second half, including a free kick after a red card on Kerawala in the 71st minute, but were unable to finish.

After an emotional victory on Thursday, the Cardinal avoided any type of letdown in Sunday’s match in Corvallis. First-half goals from Langsdorf, redshirt sophomore Tanner Beason and senior Drew Skundrich allowed the Cardinal to pull away early and cruise to an easy 3-0 victory. Langsdorf finished up his stellar weekend with his goal in the 17’ off of a nifty touch from Bashti. He is now tied for sixth in program history with 33 career goals. Corti also recorded his eighth solo shutout of the season as the Cardinal won their 11th straight match against the Beavers.

Stanford’s wins gave them a cushion in the Pac-12 standings as they now sit well ahead of second-place Cal (9-5, 4-3).

Stanford has a bye this week before closing out the regular season with a three-game homestand, starting with UCLA on Nov. 2. All three of the remaining games will be streamed live on Pac-12 networks.

Contact Gregory Block at gblock ‘at’ stanford.edu.