STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford used a first-half flurry to win its exhibition opener on Sunday afternoon. Tomas Hilliard-Arce, Corey Baird and Collin Liberty found the back of the net on a trio of set pieces and the Cardinal beat visiting Portland 3-0.
"I thought it was excellent," head coach Jeremy Gunn said of his team's first performance of 2017. "There little things that aren't quite there yet, but we're only four days in so that's to be expected. There were a lot of really good, positive individual performances and positive things as a group. It was an excellent preseason game and a great test. Portland will do very, very well this year. On the day we scored some great finishes and that was the difference."
Hilliard-Arce nearly scored in the third minute when he headed Derek Waldeck's corner from the top of the six-yard box, but the Pilots' Paul Christensen was there to make the save. Minutes later the same combo worked for the Cardinal and Hilliard-Arce's header off Waldeck's corner put Stanford up in the 11th.
Corey Baird added to the advantage eight minutes later when he curled in his free kick from just outside the 18 to the near post.
"The good thing was we had opportunities in open play as well," Gunn added. "I feel like we were pretty balanced with how we tried to look for chances today. We finished off the set piece, but we also looked good attacking and we haven't even started on that work yet so that was exciting."
Collin Liberty wrapped up Stanford's scoring in the 33rd minute when he took a corner from Amir Bashti at the far side of the box and headed it back to the opposite post where it ricocheted in for the Cardinal's third of the afternoon.
Redshirt senior Nico Corti started in goal for Stanford, which returns nine of 11 starters, but must replace All-America keeper Andrew Epstein and MLS first-round draft pick Brian Nana-Sinkam on the back line. Adam Mosharrafa slid over to center back to fill the spot vacated by Nana-Sinkam and freshman Logan Panchot was in the lineup at right back where Mosharrafa played in 2016.
"Nico has worked really hard and he was always right there," Gunn said. "He was unfortunate with a couple of injuries when they were initially fighting for the spot, but he's always shown that he's a fantastic goalkeeper. He's been pushing, working hard every single day he's been in the program and he deserves the reward."
Corti made three saves in his 70:25 of action and redshirt sophomore Charlie Furrer came on to play the final 19:35.
"I truly believe that we have great competition at every spot on the field," Gunn added. "Nico is doing everything he can to be ready, but there are some other good goalkeepers that are going to be pushing him every step of the way. We're going to have competition for places throughout the squad."
Stanford's final exhibition is this coming Saturday at 7 p.m. against Pacific. Admission is free and there will be locker room tours and a pregame clinic with Cardinal coaches and players two hours before the game on the practice fields adjacent to El Camino Real. A full list of promotions throughout the season can be found at gostanford.com/msocpromotions.
"We live for this time of year and the players work so hard to prepare," Gunn said as Stanford's season gets underway. "As a coach you always get excited for the new challenge with new players and you always have returning players that are evolving and changing into different young men. It's a great time of life and we want to work hard and enjoy every moment of it."