CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Oregon State men’s soccer team provided its second-consecutive complete performance, sending its seniors out on a high note in their final home game and starting a conference winning streak in the process, as the Beavers downed Stanford in overtime, 1-0, on Sunday afternoon in Corvallis.

Senior keeper Steve Spangler, who was honored before the match along with fellow veteran John Swenson, rose to the occasion against a team he had never beaten in his career and Josh von Allworden registered his first tally of the year less than two minutes into overtime to help OSU to a weekend sweep of the Bay Area schools and a .500 record in Pac-12 play.  The Beavers are now 5-8-2 overall and own a 3-3-1 mark in conference.

“To get two wins at home this weekend is fantastic,” Oregon State head coach Steve Simmons said.  “These guys have worked so hard and to do this on senior day, at home, I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

After 90 minutes of scoreless action, the squads readied for the first 10-minute overtime period, but the freshman to sophomore combination of Will Seymore and von Allworden ensured the Beavers would be spared their third draw of the season.

Just over a minute and a half into the extra session, Stanford was whistled for an illegal take-down in front of the scorer’s table, just across midfield.  With OSU sending numbers forward to position themselves in the box, Seymore took a sweeping kick with his right foot, launched the ball toward the goal and forced the Cardinal keeper to attempt a save and prevent a score under the crossbar. 

Stanford’s Jason Dodson was able to leap and keep the ball free of the back of the net, but unable to secure the shot, allowing von Allworden to use his midsection and re-direct the ball toward the keeper and across the goal line.  Initially, it appeared as if Dodson had made the save, but the referee ruled the ball had crossed the line and sent the thousand Beaver fans present into wild celebration.

“[Soccer] is a cruel game,” Simmons said.  “I’ve seen that happen before, but it’s a part of the game.  You just want to do enough work so that if you’re going to steer you’re luck, those things are going to happen for you.  You work the percentages.”

The goal was von Allworden’s second of his career and Seymore’s assist moved him into second place on the team this year with three.

 

The Beavers would have never had a chance were it not for the spectacular play of Spangler in net.  The Arizona native faced 10 shots and made seven saves, his most this season.  In the second half, Spangler made five stops on seven Stanford shots to preserve the clean sheet.

“To get the shutout and the win … I feel so good for him and his parents,” Simmons said of Spangler.  “He’s been such a great servant to the program [and] to the university you want to see those things [happen].”

“[The win] feels so good,” Spangler commented.  “That was an ideal situation for me and John [Swenson].  We couldn’t be happier with how the guys competed today and how they worked.”

With the performance, Spangler moves into sole possession of third place in Oregon State history in shutouts (11) and his 237 saves are now just 16 shy of tying him for second.

The back-to-back wins in conference marks the first time OSU has accomplished that feat since 2009.  With road games against nationally ranked San Diego State and UCLA this coming weekend, the Beavers will look to continue climbing up the Pac-12 standings and to secure their first consecutive trio of conference wins in a single season since 2005.

“I’m going to let these guys feel like Superman for a while because it’s hard to win,” Simmons said.  “But we’ll be back at it and look forward to playing SDSU and UCLA down there.”

Kickoff against the Aztecs on Friday is scheduled for 3 p.m. while the game against the Bruins begins at 2 p.m. on Sunday.