On Saturday, No. 5 Stanford men’s soccer defeated Cal Poly 2-0 at home in their third and final exhibition match. Midfielder Zach Bohane and defenseman Nik White scored for the Cardinal while Rowan Schnebly was the winning goalkeeper, playing 76:53 in front of the net before Laszlo Bollyky played the final 13:07.
“I thought it was a really excellent game for us tonight,” Stanford head coach Jeremy Gunn said after the match. “It’s a night game, both teams almost a couple of weeks in now, and so it was feeling more and more like season time. Which is exactly what we wanted out of this game and so I thought it was a really competitive game throughout where it was difficult to play because both teams were defending very very well and I just felt that in the first half we just had the slightly better chances in a really tough fought half.
“In the second half, just from the get-go we started to play more and more and more and so I was really pleased with how the game went. It was tight, it was difficult, and then as the game wore on we got to compose ourselves and play better and better and better and got stronger and stronger as it went along. And so, overall just really really pleased, you know?
“Obviously love Oige [Kennedy]. I know him really well. You know, we worked together for so long and so we know each other’s teams well. So it’s going to cancel out a little bit. He’s doing an excellent job there. He’s made massive changes to their program and they’re a very tough team to compete against and so I thought it was a great last preseason test and I felt that the positives that come out of the game were really really great because it was definitely a real game and a real test and it wasn’t a preseason game where people can do an ok job and still high five and smile. Whatever you got out of tonight had to be earned.”
The first half of the match was scoreless as neither team found the back of the net. Stanford did however apply much more pressure on Cal Poly from the opening moments of the match as they had five shots and six corner kicks in the first half while Cal Poly had just one shot and zero corner kicks. Even though they hadn’t yet scored, Stanford was clearly in control and playing like the team with all the momentum.
That said, Cal Poly was playing quite chippy from the start as they picked up two yellow cards in the first half. Stanford had a yellow card of their own, but Cal Poly was clearly trying to muck up the game as much as possible and not give the Cardinal an inch.
Things would not remain scoreless for long in the second half. At the 46:13 mark, Stanford finally hit pay dirt as Zach Bohane scored for the Cardinal off an assist from Fletcher Bank. The ball bounced off the top cross bar and into the net. The officiating crew went to review the goal and confirmed. It was now a 1-0 lead for the Cardinal.
“Honestly, pretty lucky goal,” Bohane admitted. “Good press by Jackson [Kiil]. He won it of the center back and kind of caught the keeper off guard. The keeper hit it out to Fletcher and obviously Fletcher was there in the right spot. He cut it back and I got lucky enough to just get a touch on it and somehow it went in the back of the goal. So, very luck goal but everyone was in the right spot. So, that’s how it happened.”
“I think he finished the ball well,” Gunn said of Bohane’s goal. “And hopefully he can continue to keep scoring goals again this season. I think it was Fletcher that set him up. You know, we created a couple chances and so it was nice to finally get the go ahead goal, really.”
Stanford continued to be on the offensive and soon found their second goal of the night as Nik White punched one in off an assist from Bohane at the 63:17 mark. It was White’s first goal of his Cardinal career as he is a grad transfer from Harvard.
“He’s great, he’s another very strong, very committed defender,” Gunn said of White. “And who’s also capable of scoring in the air and so, it was a beautiful delivery in…It was a perfect delivery in. Nik absolutely buried it and so I thought he had a really good game tonight and again it just pushes for places and so very excited at the level of competition we have across the board for places and I think while we’re healthy there’s lots and lots of competition which is really good and the more competition we have, the healthier we’ll stay and the more competitive we’ll be. So, really exciting.”
“He’s just awesome,” Bohane said of White. “He brings amazing leadership. Just, he’s a great guy. So, it’s good to have him and another transfer Louis [Sterobo] here to add some more leadership in the locker room and I mean you saw how much it meant to him, so that was pretty cool.”
The rest of the way, neither team would score though Stanford would get in on the yellow card action as they picked up four yellow cards in the final 20 minutes of the match. It was truly a chippy and physical match all the way through. The fact that this was an exhibition didn’t matter. Both teams were playing hard and gritty.
In addition to their 2-0 victory, Stanford went on to outshoot Cal Poly 15-4 in total for the match with nine corner kicks to Cal Poly’s five. To Cal Poly’s credit, they did have five second half corner kicks to Stanford’s three. They did make a real effort to put more pressure on Stanford in the second half, it’s just that Stanford found a way to take their game up to another notch and not allow Cal Poly to get clean looks at the net. All the shots Cal Poly fired were contested.
“I think just going into the locker room and getting everyone on the same page and knowing that hey, it’s gonna come,” Bohane said of the key to their second half success. “We just gotta keep doing the right things and our opportunity will be there and not to turn on each other. I think the attitude of the team. Just knowing that if we keep going, the goals will come. So, started out the second half the same way we started the first half and catch them off guard and then we scored today. Yeah, that’s kinda been our momentum going into the second half.”
For Stanford, this was a solid win to close out the exhibition season. They went 2-0-1 in their exhibitions and didn’t give up a goal. That’s a testament to the kind of defense Stanford has and that is something that should carry over strongly into the regular season.
“Very good,” Gunn said of their defense. “I think just overall there’s always things to do. There’s always harder work to be done but impressed with how we defended overall as a team and certainly it’s a good foundation to work from and so we’ll take it into the season there.”
Up next for Stanford will be their regular season opener at home against San Jose State on Thursday, August 22nd. That will begin at 7:00 PM PT.
“Oh really excited,” Gunn said about the opener against the Spartans. “Simon [Tobin], my college coach, he’s the head coach, he says this is his retirement year. And so, for me personally, that’s a great honor to be coaching against him. But, this isn’t about coaches. This sport is about the players. Our players are excited. We spent too much of the year waiting for the season and so it’ll be electrifying. Can’t wait to get going. We’ve had a great preseason so far and we’ll be looking forward to a really exciting night and we hopefully can get a big crowd out there and cheer the team on.”
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