Oregon State
Stanford
No. 19 Beavers fall to No. 1 Stanford in Pac-12 Battle
October 28, 2011 | Women's Soccer
Oct. 28, 2011
CORVALLIS, Ore.— The 19th ranked Oregon State women's soccer team fell to the No. 1team in the country tonight against Stanford 2-1 in a hard fought battle between to Pac-12 opponents. The Beavers overall record is now 12-5-2 and 6-3-0 in conference play.
Oregon State got on the scoreboard first, with Stanford trailing for the first time this season. Jenna Richardson scored her eighth goal of the season in the fourth minute of the game when the Beaver midfield found Richardson in the box. Richardson shot the ball from 15-yards out to the far post to put the Beavers up 1-0 in the first five minutes.
“I spoke with the Stanford coach and he said that no team has really gone at them like that, so that is what we wanted to do and put them under pressure,” head coach Linus Rhode said. “I think that in the first half we had them on our heels and we created some good chances.”
The Beavers nearly scored again a few minutes later when Ashley Seal made a run forward and connected off a shot in the 18-yard box, but the Stanford goalkeeper came up with the save.
Stanford outshot the Beavers 13 to five in the first half, but Colleen Boyd made spectacular saves to keep the Beavers in the lead. One of her best saves of the half came in the 33rd minute when she had to make a diving save against the Stanford offense to keep the ball out of the net. She finished with six saves in the first half.
“I am super happy with the defense,” Rhode said. “Colleen was outstanding and she made some great saves. The back four and our midfielders had to do a lot of defensive play tonight and we knew that coming into the game. We had to make sure our defense was solid.”
In the second half, Stanford came out early and put one in the back of the net when they scored in the 54th minute to make the score 1-1. They added their second goal just 10 minutes later when they scored in the 65th minute to give Stanford a 2-1 lead. The leading scorer in the Pac-12, Lindsay Taylor, notched both goals.
“In the second half they obviously picked up it a little bit and I think they had some good play out on the flanks where they were able to get a lot of two-verse-one situations and get some chances off crosses,” Rhode said. “I think that part of the game is where they were able to capitalize and create some chances.”
Although Stanford scored two goals, the back line and Boyd played phenomenal against a high-powered offense. Oregon State is one of six teams this season to score on the Cardinal out of the 18 games they have played this year.
The Beavers will return to action on Sunday Oct. 30 when they take on California in another Pac-12 showdown. The game is set to kick-off at 1:00 p.m. at Paul Lorenz Field.
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