Editorials

Stanford’s Leber scores two goals 

The Cal men’s soccer team was shut out by a more energetic Stanford squad Sunday at Edwards Stadium. The 3-0 loss dropped the Bears out of Pac-10 contention at 2-3-1 in league play, while the No. 2 Cardinal boosted their title hopes by running their conference record to 5-1. 

After winning a tough match against Oregon State Friday, the Bears looked a step slow all game. Stanford didn’t play Friday, and it showed as they raced around the field cutting off passing lanes and attacking the Cal goal with a frenzy, outshooting the home side 19-4 and playing most of the game in the Cal half of the field. 

“They were fresh coming into this game. It’s hard to recover in two days when your opponent didn’t play,” Cal head coach Kevin Grimes said. “We were physically tired and maybe a little bit mentally tired.” 

The first Stanford goal came in the 12th minute when Scott Leber collected a pass inside the box and slid the ball past Cal goalkeeper Marco Palmieri. 

Leber scored again to open the second half, heading in a corner kick by teammate Matt Moses, who also assisted on the first goal. 

Cal was unable to get the ball to their front men, Austin Ripmaster and Kendall Simmonds, and had numerous passes intercepted by the Stanford midfielders. No Bear had more than one shot in the game, and Stanford goalie Adam Zapala wasn’t seriously challenged on his way to his conference-best 11th shutout of the year. 

“Our possession game really didn’t work today, but I think that’s a byproduct of Stanford’s pressure,” Grimes said. “They had so much more jump in their legs than we did.” 

Stanford put the game out of reach with their third goal in the 62nd minute. 

Forward Corey Woolfolk took a breakaway down the center of the field and passed off to Roger Levesque, who scored easily.