San Diego State men’s soccer team battled through a scoreless, physical match with No. 6 Stanford Cardinal, putting the Aztecs on the board with their first Pac-12 conference point.
As the Sports Deck was loud and proud for youth day/summer camp reunion, the Aztecs (6-1-2, 0-1-1 Pac-12 Conference) were faced with a tough defensive battle on Sunday, Oct. 1 as they had to deal with a number of Stanford (5-1-3, 0-1-3) set pieces throughout the match.
The physicality started early and carried on till the last moments of the game as the two teams combined for a total of 40 fouls.The Aztecs led in this department, whistled 25 times while the Cardinal were called for 15.
The fouls conceded by the Aztecs became a problem as it resulted in many freekicks for the Cardinal, allowing the visitors many opportunities to put the ball in dangerous areas. The Cardinal held a 7-0 corner kick advantage in the match, raising the pressure as the Aztecs were forced to defend multiple set pieces.
The Aztecs did just that as the defense stayed disciplined, clearing out all crosses from the box and goalkeeper Logan Erb made four saves to claim his sixth clean sheet of the season.
Aztecs’ head coach Ryan Hopkins had high praise for his team’s fight throughout the match.
“With Stanford, you know you’re going to give up some stuff,” Hopkins said. “I thought our guys were elite, even though you could see we call it ‘firefighting’ when it doesn’t come off perfect, the guys are very disciplined to block the goal, block shots and I thought that last scramble helped us secure the point.”
Hopkins also made it clear how impactful sophomore goalkeeper Logan Erb’s performance was.
“When Erb (was) called upon, he made the big saves and we hope he doesn’t have to make too many big saves,” Hopkins said. “We are obviously very confident, we think he’s one of the best goalkeepers in the country and he continues to show it performance after performance.”
Aztecs midfielder Seth Clark and his teammates made it their goal to keep their shape and make their presence felt.
“We were looking to keep composure and compose ourselves on them,” Clark said. “ At the end, you could see we were battling a bit but overall it was a great shift for all of us. I think we stuck to the game plan and it was good.”
Hopkins was delighted with how his team performed on defense and the effort given by all of his players.
“Credit to our defense, we don’t give up a ton of great looks and that’s a credit to our whole defense as it starts from our forwards, our midfielders, our wingers, and our whole back line,” Hopkins said.
The Aztecs will continue Pac-12 Conference play on Thursday, Oct. 5 at 7:30 p.m. as they visit Washington for their first away conference match this season.
