Sept. 16, 2005
Final Statistics in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The tallest member of the Santa Clara University men's soccer team became the big man on campus Friday night.
Six-foot, four-inch freshman defender Jide Ogunbiyi (Gwynedd, Penn.) rose high above a crowd in front of the goal to head in a 97th minute game-winner to give the Broncos a 2-1 victory over local rival Stanford in front of 2,040 in Buck Shaw Stadium.
The 13th-ranked Broncos improved to 4-1-0 on the season, while the Cardinal dropped to 1-3-1. Santa Clara travels to Berkeley, Calif. on Sunday to play sixth-ranked Cal in the second game of a doubleheader with the SCU and Cal women at Goldman Field.
"We really got off to a slow start tonight," said head coach Cameron Rast. "But, the game is played for the full 90 minutes and that is the message that we hammered home to our players at halftime. I thought that throughout the game we created enough chances to get the result. Our determination resulted in a goal in regulation then the goal in overtime."
The Cardinal jumped out to an early advantage offensively as they claimed the majority of the game's possession and put the SCU squad on the defensive.
Stanford took an early 1-0 lead in the 21st minute when Marcus Ryan scored on a penalty kick after a series of challenges led to a foul call by referee Bob Martinez in the Stanford penalty area. Ryan calmly deposited the ball into the lower left corner of the goal, just out of the reach of Bronco keeper Christopher Moreo (Las Vegas, Nev.).
At halftime, the Broncos regrouped and the lockerroom discussion revolved around maintaining defensive pressure and taking advantage of opportunities.
"In the second half, we did a much better job of keeping our shape and remaining compact defensively," said Rast. "We really gave them a great deal of respect in the first half due to their team speed and I think that sort of threw us out of our game. When we started to pressure them more, the momentum turned around and we created a number of chances for ourselves."
With Stanford leading 1-0 and the Broncos maintaining a wide advantage in shots, Santa Clara finally found the back of the net in the 86th minute of the game. Preseason All-America Mehdi Ballouchy (Casablanca, Morocco) attracted the Stanford defensive backs and laid-off a neat pass to Keith DeVey (Kula, Hawai'i) on the right side of the top of the penalty box. DeVey took two quick touches and drove a low shot under Cardinal keeper Josh Nesbitt.
In the overtime period, both teams tried to apply offensive pressure. However it was the Broncos who earned the win when Peter Lowry (Fair Oaks, Calif.) lofted a ball from the left side of the field into the penalty area in the 97th minute.
Ogunbiyi, DeVey and a Stanford defender each went up for the ball. Ogunbiyi headed it toward the goal and it appeared to take a slight deflection off the Cardinal player and went past Nesbit for the game-winner.
The goal marked the first collegiate score for Obunbiyi, who has been a member of the Nigerian Youth National Team Program since 2001.
