On Tuesday, Stanford men’s soccer defeated Cal State Bakersfield 2-1 in their second of three home exhibition matches.
On Tuesday, Stanford men’s soccer defeated Cal State Bakersfield 2-1 in their second of three home exhibition matches. Zach Bohane (19:22) and Shane de Flores (83:42) both scored for the Cardinal while Dakotah Medina (39:45) scored for the Roadrunners.
BOX SCORE: Stanford vs. CSU-Bakersfield-August 12th
“Yeah, I thought we started up really brightly,” Stanford head coach Jeremy Gunn said after the match. “I thought we played very well at the beginning of the game and really dominated. We’re clearly on top, we get the go-ahead goal, and then we just weren’t able to capitalize to create any daylight in the game. And so, we definitely were dominating, but we weren’t creating the extra chance to get the second goal. As a result, you know, Bakersfield only have a couple of chances, but they took the one good chance very very well. And so, you go from a game where you’re really dominating to suddenly you’re tied again.
“And so, I think it was a good question to be asked of us because you could see just a little bit of frustration. And so, it’s a great thing to be happening to the team right now to show okay, how do we respond to that and how do we not get overly frustrated? We could start again, keep doing the good things well, and hopefully you can continue to carve out chances.
“And so, you know, we had a lot of chances second half, maybe not enough clear-cut chances, but we had a lot of chances and then obviously, you know, we finally get the winning goal later on in the game through pretty much through constant perseverance and constantly asking questions.”
Through the first 19 minutes of the match, both the Cardinal and Roadrunners had two corner kicks each. 59 seconds after the Roadrunners’ second corner kick, Bohane found the back of the net for the Cardinal off an assist from Fletcher Bank. That made it a 1-0 lead for Stanford at 19:22.
“Unfortunately, I had a lot of chances before that didn’t go my way,” Bohane said when asked of his goal. “Kind of fluffed my shots, but this one was a great run. Great ball behind from Dylan, Fletcher ran the channel well, took it to the byline, cut it back, and I was just in the right places at the right time, but Fletch did all the work, and it was a great team goal.”
Stanford would get another corner kick at 28:42, unable to capitalize. As for Bakersfield, they were able to even things up right before halftime at 39:45 as Medina found the bottom right of the goal off his right foot thanks to an assist from Oshea Foster. Rowan Schnebly was in the net the Cardinal, so the Roadrunners were able to score on the Cardinal’s top goalkeeper. At halftime, it was tied 1-1 as neither team would score again before halftime. Stanford was currently outshooting Bakersfield 8-4.
“We started out the game really well and then kind of took the foot off the gas,” Bohane admitted. “Started losing it short a lot. And so coach kind of reiterated the message from the beginning, just saying put it behind them, make them turn around and then our chances will come. So that’s kind of what we did in the first 10, first 15 of the second half. We just put it over their heads, made them spin, and then we just won the second.”
In the second half, Stanford turned on the jets with corner kicks at 47:57, 63:08, and 68:09 while Bakersfield had a corner kick at 49:34. However, 70:00 in it was still tied 1-1 even with Stanford giving themselves more opportunities to score. Bakersfield then had a corner kick at 72:59 and later at 80:26, unable to score on either chance. With less than 10 minutes to go, it looked like this one might end in a draw despite Stanford’s increased aggression in which they were outshooting Bakersfield 12-1.
Fortunately for Stanford, the 13th shot of the second half was not unlucky as Shane de Flores found the bottom left of the goal off his right foot at 83:42, making it a 2-1 lead. From there, Stanford would hang on to win as they tacked on one more shot to make it a 14-1 advantage in shots for the half.
“It was actually another great team goal,” Bohane said. “I think it was Eric that won the ball, looked forward, and then Shane does what he does best, got in front of goal, played a great three ball from Eric, and then Shane just slotted it in. But, we needed this one, needed a win, so thank you to Shane for getting it done.”
For Stanford, this was overall a good win. They could have felt resigned to the tie, but instead they pushed through and found that second goal to get the win. While a shutout would have been better, it was a good situational for them to be in and pull through victorious.
Even though it’s still early in the exhibition portion of the season, Shane de Flores is off to a strong start, scoring one goal in each of Stanford’s exhibition matches so far. If he can continue to play like he’s been playing, that would do wonders for the Cardinal offense.
“No, it’s great. It’s always good to see strikers score goals and so that will boost his confidence,” Gunn said of de Flores. “And you know, we need to get the other forwards adding to the scoresheet as well, hopefully this weekend.”
One thing that made this match a bit cool is that Cal State Bakersfield is the alma mater of Jeremy Gunn. He’s still the program’s all-time leader in goals (46), assists (36), and points (128). While he was focused on the match at hand, he still has fun talking about his days as a Roadrunner.
“It’s fun for me, I don’t think the players care at all, either. I’m just an old man,” Gunn said with a smile. “But you know, Brandon Hearron is the goalkeeper coach and he was somebody that I coached when I was there. And so, it’s always fun and I tell our players that you know, college is the four best years of your life and so whenever the mention of where I went to school goes, you can see. I’ve got great fond memories and I think of all the great people and all the time we’ve spent together. So, it’s always fun to have a little reminder of that. But you know, on the game day, it’s very much business as usual.”
Up next f or Stanford is their third and final exhibition against Cal Poly on Saturday, August 16th. That will begin at 7:00 PM PT on ACCNX.
“It’s so important, just getting games under our feet,” Bohane said of the exhibition matches. “Obviously, we play against each other starting, we arrive here July 11th. Kind of training as a team, but this allows us to play against outside competition, which there’s no better feeling than that. So, these two games have been great and then we have a big one again Saturday against Cal Poly, who’s a good team. We lost to them in the spring, so that’ll be a fun one.”
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Category: General Sports
