Cardinal Snap Winless Streak With Statement Over No. 3 Wake Forest

Stanford had never beaten Wake Forest in five previous meetings. A pair of second-half goals — the last with 13 seconds remaining — changed that.

Three days after Louisville ended its 21-match home unbeaten streak, No. 6 Stanford answered with the biggest win of its season.

The Cardinal beat No. 3 Wake Forest 2-0 at Cagan Stadium on Sunday, snapping a two-match losing skid and, more notably, a winless streak against the Demon Deacons that had stood at 0-4-1 across five all-time meetings — the only opponent to hold an undefeated record against Stanford in at least three matchups.

The first 45 minutes gave no hint of what was coming. Stanford held a 5-1 shot advantage in the first half but couldn't break through, and the match stayed scoreless until the 77th minute, when freshman Peyton Marinos finished a through ball from Bella Winn, slotting a low left-footed shot past goalkeeper Valentina Amaral for her second career goal.

Wake Forest nearly answered in the 90th minute. A Stanford back-pass toward goalkeeper Caroline Birkel was pounced on by Kylie Maxwell, who dribbled around Birkel and had an open net in front of her — only for junior Lizzie Boamah to chase the play down and slide the ball out for a corner before it crossed the line.

The corner kick swung the game the other way. Amaral pushed up into Stanford's box to defend it, and after the Cardinal cleared their lines, she got caught trying to keep the ball in Wake Forest's attacking third at midfield.

Charlotte Kohler stripped her there, drove half the length of the pitch unchallenged, and finished into the empty net with 13 seconds on the clock. It was Kohler's team-leading seventh goal of the season, and her eighth match scoring a point in 10 matches this year.

The result flips the storylines from three days earlier. Stanford improves to 7-2-1 overall and 1-2-0 in the ACC, while Wake Forest suffers its first loss of the season, dropping to 9-1-0. It's also Stanford's first win over a top-five opponent since beating then-No. 1 Virginia 2-1 last October, and comes against a defense that had allowed only two goals through its first nine matches.

Birkel and Boamah, both back from a U-20 World Cup stint with the U.S. that had kept them out of the Louisville and Duke losses, played central roles in preserving the shutout.

The win also fits a broader trend at Cagan Stadium, where Stanford is now 139-8-11 since the start of the 2014 season.

Zoom out further and the Cardinal have gone 74-10-11 over their last 95 matches, outscoring opponents 91-25 over the last 27 and posting a clean sheet in seven of their 10 games this year. Against ranked competition specifically, Stanford is now 3-1-0 on the season.

Stanford takes the momentum on the road next, visiting SMU for a 4 p.m. kickoff on Friday, September 25.