Eagles Fall in Close Battle to No. 7 Stanford

STANFORD, Calif. – No. 15 seed Boston College battled for all 90 minutes against No. 2 seed and national No. 7 Stanford, but fell by a score of 4-2 in the first round of the ACC Tournament on Wednesday evening. The Eagles jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but the Cardinal scored four unanswered goals to come back for the win.

Michael Asare led the way for the Eagles with two goals, the first mutli-goal game of his collegiate career. Marci Killeen and Ask Ekeland both earned a point with an assist on the first goal of the night. Andrej Borak made eight saves in goal for Boston College.

BC ends the season at 7-9-1 overall. Stanford improves to 13-2-2 and advances to play SMU in the ACC quarterfinals.

The Eagles nearly struck early when Ekeland had a free kick from distance inside the opening 10 minutes. Ekeland's free kick struck the wall, but the deflection forced Stanford goalkeeper Rowan Schnebly to punch the ball over the crossbar and out for a corner kick.

Boston College opened the scoring in the 13th minute when Asare slotted home the breakaway to make it 1-0 for the visitors. The ball was bouncing around near midfield when Ekeland laid off a pass for Killeen, who passed it on the first touch and split the defense into the space for Asare to run onto. Asare outran the Stanford defender and struck a shot into the bottom left corner for his second goal of the campaign.

The Eagles doubled the lead midway through the opening half when Asare scored his second of the night. Ekeland sent a long ball across the grass down the left wing to Asare. Asare dribbled the ball into the box before cutting it back and sending the Stanford defender in the wrong direction. He calmly regained his balance and curled an effort into the far top corner to make it a two-goal game.

The Cardinal cut into the deficit with seven minutes to go in the first half when Will Cleary was able to put home a shot that just managed to get over the line before Moritz Gundelach was able to clear it out.

Stanford tallied the equalizer inside the first minute of the second half. The Cardinal played a corner kick into the box and the ball bounced around near the top of the box before Jack Pymm struck a left-footed shot into the right side of the goal to tie the game.

Borak made a huge stop when he recorded his fifth save of the night, diving low to his right side to palm away a shot from close range.

The Cardinal took the lead in the 54th minute when Cleary scored a header from the six-yard box off a cross from Fletcher Bank. Stanford added another in the 89th minute when Tomo Allen put home a header off a cross by Bank.

Eagles Fall in Close Battle to No. 7 Stanford

Team Stats

Michael Asare

Ask Ekeland

Marci Killeen

Russell Brown

Players Mentioned

Michael Asare

Andrej Borak

Ask Ekeland

Moritz Gundelach

Marci Killeen