On Thursday, No. 13 Stanford men’s soccer defeated Cal State Fullerton by a final score of 5-0. Shane de Flores led the way for the Cardinal with two goals while Rowan Schnebly picked up the win in the net at goalkeeper. Stanford improves to 2-1-0 while Cal State Fullerton falls to 0-3-0.
BOX SCORE: Stanford vs. Cal State Fullerton-Thursday, August 29th
“It was a really tough game,” Stanford head coach Jeremy Gunn said after the match. “I think it was incredibly exciting for the spectator tonight. Our mandate was we got to ruthlessly pursue scoring goals. That was the mandate and the issue we had was every player on the pitch took that wholeheartedly and so we threw a lot at them in attack, but they were very very quick to counterattack us and as a result, it was a gut busting end-to-end action packed game.
“From the defensive side, I wasn’t happy that were giving up as many good chances, but there was some fantastic last ditch defending in the box. So kudos to our last ditch defending. Not so good on our team defending as a whole, but chances went either way, we managed to convert, and then the beginning of the second half, again Fullerton really had a go again, put us under a little bit of pressure and we got the second goal and it gave us a little bit of daylight and a bit more confidence and then wonderful way to finish the game emphatically. We just rock solid defending in the last fifteen minutes where we were not giving up chances now and then we were still counterattacking and scoring great goals.”
Within the first 12 minutes of the first half, Cal Fullerton already had a pair of corner kicks while Stanford had one. The Titans were putting good pressure on Stanford and came out swinging. Fortunately for Stanford, they were able to score their first goal early in the first half to counter Fullerton as Fletcher Bank had a pretty assist to Shane de Flores at the 13:39 mark. Shane de Flores was able to find the bottom left of the goal off his right foot. It was now a 1-0 lead for the Cardinal.
“Yeah, the first goal, all credit to Fletcher’s running up and down that flank all night, put an early ball in, super hard for the defender to deal with,” de Flores said. “So, happy to be on the back post; tap it in.”
Stanford would not score the rest of the first half, keeping it a 1-0 match at halftime. It was tight at the break as Stanford was only out-shooting Fullerton 5-4 while each team had four corner kicks. Stanford was applying a bit more pressure as they forced Fullerton goalkeeper Brandon Limes to have three saves while Rowan Schnebly only had one save. Fullerton was playing more chippy as they committed eight fouls in the first half while Stanford only committed three.
“Yeah, the message was just restart the game like it’s 0-0,” de Flores said of what Gunn’s message to the team was at halftime. “So, went out there. Kept fighting, competing, and then we knew if we got one more were going to come. So, just proud of the boys for how we fought in the second half. Yeah, proud of the win.”
In the second half, the floodgates opened for Stanford. At 62:18, Fletcher Bank hit a header into the top left of the goal off an assist from Zach Bohane and Will Cleary. That made it a 2-0 lead for the Cardinal. Fullerton was trying hard to stay in the match, but after giving up that second goal it was becoming clear that this wasn’t going to be Fullerton’s night.
Rather than play more conservative after that second goal, Stanford instead kept their foot on the gas, eager to score as many goals as they could. At 82:55, Shane de Flores scored off a penalty kick as he found the top right of the goal off his right foot. It was now a 3-0 lead for Stanford as de Flores had his second goal of the night.
“It’s great for him,” Gunn said of de Flores scoring two goals. “I mean obviously he was bitterly disappointed on Sunday with the great chance he had where we thought it could be a goal. So, he thoroughly deserved it. He’s playing very very well. He’s very exciting at the moment and so he did his job well tonight. Not just putting the ball in the back of the net, but also tremendous work off the ball as well.”
“Second goal, Will Reilly our captain did a great job to draw a foul right at top of the box,” de Flores recalled. “And then just went back to all the training of the free kicks and stuff I practice and just try to put it on target and luckily it went in, so happy with that.”
At this point, it seemed like 3-0 would be the final score. However, Stanford was able to score two more goals in the final two minutes. At 88:02, Noah Adnan found the back of the net off an assist from Alex Chow after which Trevor Islam scored at 88:19 off an assist from Kwabena Kwakwa and Nico Rei McMillan. 5-0 would be the final score as Stanford was able to pile it on late.
“A little bit wearing down, but I think they were always gambling and counterattacking,” Gunn said of their second half offensive success. “So when we had attacked, they left people high, which mean we got a bit more exposed when we didn’t finish attacks. But then in the late part of the game, they had to now come onto us and we let them come onto us and so as a result we really got to counterattack them decisively with a couple of great chances. And then of course we finished a couple set pieces tonight as well, which always helps.”
“We’ve definitely been struggling to produce, so it was great to get a lot of different guys on the scoresheet,” de Flores said. “Once one went in a few more just kept coming. So, it was a good team effort all-around.”
For Stanford, this was a nice win. Scoring goals hasn’t been easy for them this season and so to score five goals in one match has to feel good. They feel like they’ve done a good job of creating chances and they were certainly rewarded handsomely for that in this match.
“Scoring goals never hurt anybody,” Gunn said with a laugh. “I think it’s great for the team. I think in some of our preseason games, we could have easily put a couple more chances away. Throughout the season we’ve had those moments where we’ve wanted chances back because it looked like we could have scored goals. And so I think it was great for the team, great for the attacking players tonight that we were much more ruthless in front of goal.”
“Yeah, I think they were creating a lot of chances,” de Flores added. “We were rock solid defensively, so that helped. In transition we were able to win the ball deep and then thrust forward and they’re out of position sometimes and we were able to capitalize on that. And then our subs came on, did a great job. Last goal Nico came on, put in a crunching challenge, played it to Kwabs. Kwabs dropped a dime to our boy Trevor and he slotted it home. That was a really exciting moment to share with the team.”
As for their defense, while they did allow Fullerton to get a lot of chances, Stanford’s defense in the box was equally impressive. They were incredibly scrappy inside and did a phenomenal job of doing what was needed to not give up a goal.
“Yeah, that just came down to our defenders being dogs in the box,” de Flores said. “Just the will and want to defend. And they’re just throwing their body in front of the ball and blocking for the team. So, they definitely put their body on the line and they were huge part of our success tonight.”
Up next for Stanford is a home match against St. Mary’s on Sunday. At 5:00 PM PT. That will be the second match of a doubleheader. Stanford women’s soccer will face Washington State earlier in the day at 1:00 PM PT. Both matches will air on ACCNX.
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