Horrifying, bizarre and totally absurd.

If what transpired at Cagan Stadium on Wednesday night had to be described in only five words, these would come the closest. Yet even they seem insufficient in fully capturing what may be the most remarkable game, and utterly insane ending, in the history of Stanford’s soccer program.

“I’ve been in all sorts of games, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that at the end of the game,” said head coach Jeremy Gunn. 

On Wednesday, Stanford men’s soccer (9-5-4, 3-2-3 ACC) hosted Notre Dame (7-5-5, 3-3-2 ACC) for their first round tie in the ACC conference tournament. Ending the regular season in the midst of a month-long winless streak, the Cardinal urgently needed to rediscover their winning formula.

At first, Stanford’s fortunes didn’t seem to have changed. Despite starting the game well, an unlucky bounce in the 22nd minute caused the ball to glance off of a Cardinal defender’s hand in their own penalty box. Notre Dame buried the ensuing penalty, and Stanford was once again faced with having to overcome an early deficit, an all-too-familiar task in their recent stretch of form.

But the Cardinal didn’t waiver. Just 12 minutes later, redshirt junior forward Jackson Kill connected with a beautiful cross from junior midfielder Will Cleary, his header lofting the ball over the Notre Dame goalkeeper and leveling the game heading into half time.

“At that moment, it’s pretty easy to feel like. ‘Woe is me,’” Gunn said. “What happened, though, was we kept playing and we kept asking questions and we scored a fantastic goal to equalize.” 

However, any momentum from the equalizer vanished in one terrifying moment. Just minutes after the halftime break, sophomore midfielder Dylan Groeneveld was flying full-speed towards the Notre Dame goal, trying to reach an incoming cross, when he collided head-first with the goalpost. 

Cagan fell silent as the trainers rushed onto the field. The players around Groeneveld were visibly shaken, with some urging those on the sideline to call 9-1-1. For over thirty minutes, medical staff treated the injured sophomore as the teams headed back into their respective locker rooms.

Eventually, EMTs would arrive, and a somber ovation broke through the tense stillness as Goeneveld was stretchered off into an ambulance. 

Gunn confirmed after the game that Groeneveld had suffered a concussion, but was “doing great” in the hospital.

When the teams returned to the field, they were given a five-minute warm up before play resumed. Understandably, the tone of the match had shifted, but the Cardinal now had a new chip on their shoulders. 

“We were talking that this game was for [Groeneveld],” said redshirt sophomore defender Dylan Hooper. “He put his body on the line so we’ve got to do everything we can to get it for him.”

Although Standord would dominate the second half, outshooting Notre Dame seven to five, they couldn’t break through the Fighting Irish’s stubborn defense. With the clock winding down, the game looked to be headed towards overtime. 

But for the Stanford soccer program, this season has been full of late-game heroics, with both the men’s and women’s teams experiencing their share of dramatic finishes. However, none rival the sheer spectacle and unlikely events that unfolded in the final moments of this game. 

It all started in the 85th minute. Ironically, another accidental handball gets called, this time on Notre Dame in their own penalty box, mirroring the fate of the Cardinal an hour earlier. With just minutes remaining in the match, senior midfielder Will Reilly stepped forward and calmly smashed the penalty down the middle, putting the Cardinal ahead. Now, all they had to do was hold on and run the clock out.

By the last final minute of the game, they seemed to have done it. With less than 20 seconds left, redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Rowan Schnebly calmly collected a Notre Dame pass gone long, and was more than happy to take his time before punting the ball back into play.

The referee, though, wasn’t having it. In a wild sequence of events, the play and the clock were stopped, Schnebly was booked for time wasting, and the Fighting Irish were also awarded an indirect free kick from within the Stanford penalty box. 

“The referee is 100% within the letter of the law to give the free kick. It’s just normally goalkeepers take liberties and get away with it,” Gunn said. 

On the ensuing indirect free kick, the Cardinal’s worst case scenario took place. Notre Dame’s shot found a gap through Stanford’s wall and deflected past Schnebly, tying the game with just 12 seconds left in the match.

The away fans erupted, and the Cardinal were stunned in disbelief. Just seconds away from victory, and now an overtime period was almost certain again. 

Still shocked and confused at what had just happened, Stanford took the kickoff as the announcers began their 10-second countdown to the end of the regulation. The ball made its way back to Hooper, who — after avoiding a rushing defender — took aim from a few yards behind the midfield line and did the only thing that he could: launching a last-ditch Hail Mary effort. 

“With 12 seconds left, I just decided that I’ve got to hit it no matter what,” Hooper said.

It took Hooper seven seconds to get his shot off, and for the next three seconds that felt like an eternity, Cagan held its breath as the ball sailed across the night sky. Just as the announcer reached “two” in his countdown, the ball snuck between the Notre Dame goalkeeper’s outstretched hands and the underside of the crossbar, bouncing into the back of the net.

Now, it was jubilance for Stanford, while the Fighting Irish stood shell-shocked. The Cardinal bench cleared as the entire team and coaching staff rushed the field to celebrate with Hooper, their hero of the night. 

“To give up a goal with how many seconds left is just crazy, and then to score a goal at the end is even crazier,” Gunn said. 

Notre Dame tried to replicate Hooper’s magic with their final kickoff in the remaining two seconds, but their shot went wide, sealing Stanford’s first ACC tournament victory in utterly unbelievable fashion.

When asked where the goal (now dubbed the “Miracle from Midfield”) ranked in his all-time soccer moments, Hooper said, “Number one for sure.”

“In the ACC tournament and the last couple seconds to win the game, it was probably the highlight of my career,” he said.

Although their celebrations were dampened by their concern for Groeneveld, fighting through such an intense rollercoaster of a game and still coming out on top might be what gives the Cardinal a much-needed spark for the rest of the postseason. 

But the team is just excited that there’s more soccer ahead.

“People always talk about outcomes and goals, but I like to say to the team, ‘Let’s play as many games of soccer as we can,’” Gunn said. “We get to play another great opponent, another great game Sunday, and so we’ll be excited to play again.”

Hooper’s once-in-a-lifetime goal snapped the Cardinal’s nearly six-week winless streak, propelling them to the second round of the ACC tournament where they traveled to No. 7 Clemson (13-2-3, 5-2-1 ACC) on Sunday. 

Unfortunately, that’s when the Cardinal’s magic in the ACC tournament ran out. On a rainy afternoon at the Historic Riggs Field, the Cardinal were eliminated from the conference tournament with a 1-0 loss to the Tigers. Despite winning their regular season matchup, the Cardinal couldn’t pull through come the postseason. 

“We had a couple of great chances, but we just weren’t quite capable of putting them away,” Gunn said after the game. “They created a couple more chances than we did so we can’t complain too much.”

Clemson had nearly double the number of shots as the Cardinal, but they ultimately broke the deadlock in the 61st minute on a counter-attack after a Cardinal corner. 

“We’re obviously disappointed with the result, but now we’ll regroup and look forward to the national tournament after some rest,” Gunn said.

Stanford now has over a week off before they find out their path to the College Cup on the NCAA tournament selection show on Nov. 18. Then, the first round of the national tournament begins on Nov. 21.