STANFORD – Kevin Carmichael scored the game-winning goal and Marco Brougher made four saves to power the California men's soccer team to a 1-0 victory over 22nd-ranked Stanford in the Big Clasico and regular-season finale on Friday night at Cagan Stadium.
 
Cal improved its record to 6-7-2 (2-4-2 ACC) with the win in its first ACC game against its longtime rival, whose record is now 8-4-4 (3-2-3).
 
The Golden Bears next compete at North Carolina in the first round of the ACC Championship. With the result over the Cardinal, Cal finished 11th in the conference standings and earned the 11th seed in the conference tournament, pitting the Golden Bears against the sixth-seeded Tar Heels in the first-round match next Wednesday at 3 p.m. PT in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Cal played UNC in Chapel Hill on Sept. 28 during the regular season, with the Bears falling 2-1.
 
Against the Cardinal, Cal came out strong early, taking a 6-0 shots advantage and forcing two saves out of Stanford goalkeeper Rowan Schnebly in the first 17 minutes. The Bears ended the first half with a 7-3 lead in shots and Brougher made two saves of his own as the game remained 0-0 at halftime.
 
A corner kick led to the 81st-minute goal, with Alfredo Ortiz's corner ending up with Carmichael on the far side of the box. The Cal co-captain passed the ball to Kieran Bracken Serra, and the freshman played a short pass back to Carmichael, who settled the ball and fired from the top of the box to beat Schnebly for the central defender's first goal of the season.
 
Brougher faced just one Stanford shot the rest of the way, with the junior goalkeeper making a clutch save on Will Reilly's 22-yard effort at 88:37 to preserve his fourth shutout of the season.
 
"No one could write it any better," Cal head coach Leonard Griffin said of capping the regular season with a win on the Farm. "I wish we had more wins to this point. But this is a team I thought we could be from day one. I had a lot of confidence in this group and like myself they continued to believe from day one that they could play with anyone in the country. With that confidence and getting guys back healthy, there's still more to come. We're starting to hit our stride here at the end of the year.
 
"We started out hot and put pressure on them. We had to weather a few storms. Stanford's a good team that fight's to the end. But I'm happy with way we started and the way we finished."
 
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