Stanford - No. 3 seed Stanford shut out sixth-seeded Saint Louis 1-0 at Maloney Field tonight in a men's NCAA quarterfinal soccer match before 2,511 at Maloney Field. Cardinal leading scorer Roger Levesque scored the winner in the first half, and Stanford hung on to advance to the College Cup semifinals in Columbus, Ohio next weekend.
"That was a well-played game between two outstanding teams, and either one could have won the match," Billikens head coach Dan Donigan said. "We just happened to make one mistake. It was in our defensive third, and it was costly but that's soccer."
Stanford out-shot the Billikens 7-5 in the first half and had the better of the opportunities. Levesque was on the attack early, and Billiken keeper John Politis had to be alert on his 15-yard shot in the fourth minute. Midfielder Derek Shanahan went wide of the right post on the rebound. After SLU midfielder David Beck registered the Bills' first shot forcing Terris' first save, the Billikens played short-handed for seven minutes while senior striker Dipsy Selolwane was tended to for a bloody nose. In a nine-minute span, the Cardinals had three chances but Johanes Maliza, Matt Moses and Todd Dunivant couldn't put their shots on goal.
Levesque put the Cardinal on top in the 38th minute when he capitalized on Politis' errant goalkick. Levesque chested Politis' low drive, settled it, split the defense and beat Politis low to the near post.
"It wasn't that I slipped or mishit it," Politis said. "It just happened to go right at him, and he made a good play."
The Billikens ended the half with sustained pressure over the final 3:30 in to attempt to tie the game. Jason Cole's looping 15-yard header was easily handled by Terris. At the 2:35 mark, Davis drilled a 20-yard bullet just wide of the left post. With 1:20 remaining, Terris managed to find Hill's 25-yard shot through traffic with a diving stop at the right post. Beck had a chance with 40 ticks remaining but was wide from 18 yards at the right post.
Saint Louis had better control of the possession in the second half as Stanford played more conservatively and looked for the occasional counter attack. The Cardinal nearly salted the game away in the 71st minute in a scramble in front of the Billiken net, buy SLU sweeper Marty Tappel cleared the ball away as it rolled along the goal line.
The Billikens kept bringing people forward but could only come agonizingly close to the equalizer. Forward Jack Jewsbury's header was snagged by Terris in the 73rd minute. Midfielder Brad Davis had the two best chances to knot the match. He sent a 30-yard shot high off a restart from the dead middle of the field. With 5:22 remaining, midfielder Mike Hill found Davis at the top of the Stanford area with a cross, and Davis sent a sizzling volley that Terris got a hand on to deflect it off the crossbar.
"We thought we had some pretty good chances, but could have made better use of the opportunities that we had," Davis said. "Mike sent a perfect ball to me, and I thought we had it, but their keeper made a good save."
Stanford out-shot Saint Louis 12-8 for the match and had an 8-6 edge in corners. Politis made three saves for the Bills, while the Cardinal's Terris made four stops. The Stanford defense did a solid job on the nation's leading goal scorer, Dipsy Selolwane who was held without a shot for the first time this season.
The Billikens' season ended at 18-2-0 and both Billiken losses were 1-0 scores. Stanford is 19-1-1 and will face the winner of the North Carolina/Fairleigh Dickinson match.
STANFORD 1, SAINT LOUIS 0
SU 37:09 Roger Levesque unassisted on break-in after steal
Shots: SLU-8, SU-12 Corners: SLU-6, SU-8 Saves: SLU-4 (Politis-3, Team-1), SU-4 (Terris) Fouls: SLU-13, SU-18 Att: 2,511
