Facing their second straight big-name opponent after beating the University of Virginia (UVA) 2-1 in extra time on Monday, Denver returned home to meet the Stanford Cardinals and a packed house. 

Like the UVA game, this one went to extra time, but neither team could find the game-winning goal in the 1-1 tie. A win and a draw against two historically top-ranked programs back to back is nothing to scoff at though. 

“When you get to the top of college soccer, teams have identities, and for us to bring our own identity and be effective at that gives us great confidence,” coach Jamie Franks said. 

Franks elaborated on DU’s team identity saying, “it is collective: it is based off of our positions, and it is based off of our grit,” 

The game itself was a closely contested affair as the score would suggest. The first half was on the slower side, both teams remaining defensively responsible, leaving one another little room to operate. Stanford possessed the ball more in the first half, but Denver’s defense restricted high danger opportunities, forcing Stanford to pass the ball on the outside. While Denver had a couple of chances to counter-attack, neither team put any real pressure on the opposing goalkeeper in the first half, with neither keeper forced to make a save. 

In the second half, the game began to open up, and both teams had more scoring chances. Stanford was the first team to cash in on a chance, with a free-kick by star midfielder/forward Ousseni Bouda (Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso), leading to a header by Keegan Hughes (Heath, OH) that beat Denver’s graduate goalkeeper Will Desantis (Salt Lake City, UT). 

After the goal, the game began to open up even more, with Denver eager for an equalizer. Both teams had opportunities, but it looked like Stanford’s would hold strong against DU’s offense. That was until a good run by senior midfielder Stefan DeLeone (Fort Collins, Colo.) led to a Stanford foul inside the penalty box, resulting in a Denver penalty kick. In a moment that felt like the game was on the line, Stanford keeper Matt Frank (Bloomfield, Mich.) stopped DeLeone’s initial attempt but failed to control the rebound, which DeLeone put in the back of the net for a Denver goal. The score remained 1-1 for the remainder of the game, but not without some excitement, especially in the second ten-minute overtime period where the game was wide open and chances were plentiful for both sides. 

Despite there only being three yellow cards in total, a theme of the game was the sheer number of fouls against both sides. Stanford had 19 fouls, while Denver had 22 by the end of the game. 

Coach Franks attributed some of this to Stanford’s style of play, saying they are “intelligent in how they tactically foul,” but also added that, “at a certain point the ref needs to step in and start to card some of [Stanford’s players].” He added that he thought it was “difficult to play when there was fouling like that.” 

Coach Franks also liked how the team responded after conceding the first goal in both of their last two games, saying, “we have [come back after allowing the first goal] twice this week, we can come back from a goal down and we didn’t really change our system of play”. Franks attributed this to the team “buying into our system of play and buying into our processes, but beyond anything else, it shows how resilient the group is.”

Denver returns to conference play when they travel to Tulsa to meet Oral Roberts next Saturday. Their last home game of the season is on Oct. 30 against the University of Omaha, at which there is bound to be a large Halloweekend turnout.