STANFORD, Calif. – Senior captain Noah Adnan recorded his first career brace while goalkeeper Rowan Schnebly made a pair of stops in a penalty kick shootout, leading 16-seed Stanford (9-5-5) to the Sweet Sixteen via a 6-5 victory in penalties over UC Santa Barbara (12-5-5) in a Sunday night thriller.
“It was a really, really tough game between a very good team. Very impressed with Santa Barbara tonight but even more proud of how we played tonight,” said Jeremy Gunn, the Knowles Family Director of Men’s Soccer. “It’s about being prepared for every opportunity to win the game, whether that be in regulation, each period of sudden death, and then the penalty shootouts and I thought our players played fantastic tonight.”
A double-digit shot tally in the opening half allowed Stanford to find the scoreboard first in the match, as a 33rd-minute corner kick from Will Reilly found Adnan at the back post where the senior would bury it for a 1-0 lead.
The captains connected on a corner chance once more in the 45th minute, with Adnan tucking in an attack on the near-side post from a Reilly feed to give Stanford a two-goal advantage heading into the locker rooms.
The second frame saw the UC Santa Barbara come out with a much more aggressive approach, with their efforts being rewarded in the 50th minute as Haruki Utsumi collected the rebound off his own blocked shot and rifled the second chance into the back of the net.
The Gauchos continued to press and generated a crucial opportunity in the 70th minute, as Santa Barbara was awarded a penalty kick as video review determined a Cardinal handball in the penalty area. With UCSB’s Alexis Ledoux on the spot, Schnebly dove to his left and denied the right-footed attack to maintain the Stanford lead.
Frantically looking for the equalizer in the closing moments, the Gauchos found their opportunity with 13 seconds left, converting on their 14th and final shot of the second frame off a Zac Siebenlist header to force overtime.
“Soccer has a lot of cliches and as one goes, ‘it’s a tale of two halves’,” Gunn added. “I thought it was a 10 out of 10 performance in the first half but Santa Barbara came out as a different team in the second half and we allowed them to play more composed and make this an entirely new game.”
The two extra time 10-minute periods lacked any serious scoring threats as the lone Stanford shot on goal was collected by the Gaucho goalkeeper while two other attacks sailed well outside of the frame.
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