STANFORD, Calif. --- UC Irvine men's soccer and keeper
Luke Pruter turned away 13 shots Thursday night at Laird Q. Cagan Stadium, but not enough to stop Stanford falling, 2-0.
FIRING SQUAD
The Stanford Cardinal (3-3-1, 0-2) were hungry for some offense having been shutout over the last three matches and over 300 minutes in total. Stanford peppered the Anteater defense with three shots within the first minute of play.
The Cardinal didn't have to wait too long to get on the scoreboard netting the opener in the fifth minute. Ousseni Bouda's free kick from the left wing was flicked ahead and on to Andrew Aprahamian to slot it home and put Stanford up, 1-0.
The Cardinal continued to dictate the flow putting up the match's first 11 shots all in the first 17 minutes. UCI (2-6-1) finally got a handle of things and began to put up their own offense with the match's next five shots including a knock off the crossbar by
Ryan Khedoo.
The match bled into halftime with the 1-0 score standing and seven saves from Pruter already.
SAVING FACE
More Cardinal offense came toward goal with Pruter up to the challenge again. He had eclipsed his previous high of nine saves before the 60-minute mark, and added an 11th save before Stanford struck again.
The 66th minute saw Bouda and fellow forward Zach Ryan once again set up a teammate as Will Richmond was the beneficiary scoring to make it 2-0 Stanford.
The Anteaters continued to fight back, but struggled to build and possess for very long. UCI put up nine shots of their own with three on target, but for the first time in four matches were held off the scoreboard and dropping the final non-conference match.
FINAL SCORE: STANFORD 2, UC IRVINE 0
Luke Pruter did all he could stopping an astounding 13 shots on the night of the 23 Stanford put up. The 13 saves are the second-most ever recorded by a UC Irvine keeper. Pruter joins Mike Gartlan who three times saved as many as 13 shots in a match, finishing with exactly 13, twice, and a program record 17 in 1990, the last time UCI had a save performance of 13 or more. Pruter and his teammate
Gordon Botterill each have a 10-save game this season raising the total of 10-save matches in program history to 17.
CONFERENCE CALL
The 'Eaters finish non-conference play with a 2-6-1 record. Of the six defeats, two have come against Pac-12 schools, four by a single goal, and three against programs either ranked or receiving votes.
Next up, the Anteaters will open Big West play on Wednesday, September 29, hosting UC Riverside at 7:00 p.m. in Anteater Stadium.
