STANFORD, Calif. – Tanner Beason buried a first-half penalty, Marc Joshua added some late insurance and No. 1 Stanford closed out the exhibition portion of its schedule with a 2-0 victory over CSUN on Saturday evening.
The three-time defending national champions open their regular season at home on Friday, August 24 against San Jose State at 5 p.m. The match against the Spartans is Cardinal Kids Day and fans can receive up to two free youth tickets with the purchase of a paid adult ticket. The first 1,500 fans in attendance that evening will also receive a t-shirt celebrating the program's back-to-back-to-back national championships.
To secure the Cardinal Kids Day promotion, fans can visit this link. Free youth admission is restricted to those in eighth grade and below due to NCAA regulations.
On Saturday, the Cardinal looked ready to take on the challenge that is to come as the team goes in search of its fourth consecutive NCAA crown. Stanford knocked on the door with strong chances in the sixth, 17th and 22nd minutes before Tanner Beason hit in his second penalty kick of the preseason late in the first half.
Early on it was Charlie Wehan with a back-heel flick in the box to set up Amir Bashti, whose attempt was saved by the Matadors' Vadym Sanzharevskyi and in the 17th Logan Panchot had a free kick from 20 yards curl wide. Two minutes later Andrew Aprahamian gave it a rip from 25 yards out and belted his shot off the crossbar.
"I think CSUN is a really good team that is going to have a great season," head coach Jeremy Gunn said. "But I was really impressed with our attitude today. I didn't think we were assertive enough in the first exhibition and we were positive with the way we played today. We asked the players to desperately keep asking questions and I couldn't have been more pleased with the way we went about playing."
Stanford got on the board with Beason's conversion in the 41st minute that followed three CSUN yellow cards in a row. First Giovanni Aguilar was carded for a high elbow on a Cardinal corner kick and then the bench was booked for its protest. Lastly Samuel Dadzie picked up the ball after Beason had already placed it in preparation for his attempt and was shown a yellow.
CSUN had a couple of opportunities early on. In the 12th the Matadors ripped off three shots in a row, the first from Aguilar was blocked, the second from Brendan Hildreth was also blocked and the third from Daniel Trejo was saved by Andrew Thomas. In the 24th minute Trejo had Thomas 1v1, but was stopped cold. The loose ball trickled back to CSUN's forward, but his second attempt bounced off the post.
Those were the Matadors' only five shots in the first half and they managed just three more in the second.
"We're moving along [defensively]," Gunn added. "We've been experimenting, trying new people, finding new combinations and everybody is trying to stake a claim for a starting spot or good minutes. It's exciting that we're creating competition for all the spots on the field. If we can keep doing that then not only will we be putting out a good starting eleven, but we'll have the depth to keep going throughout games and throughout the season."
The Cardinal added insurance in the 84th minute when Logan Panchot played a ball into the box. CSUN's Matthew Beasley was unable to solidly head it out and Alex Lara attempt to head it down back to Beasley to clear it, but the ball squirted up, Wehan cut in front of Beasley and headed it to Joshua, who smacked in his goal at the near post.
"[Scoring goals] is what the game is about and what we work for all the time," Gunn said. "Soccer is such a low-scoring sport that when you execute well and have those moments it's really exciting. Hopefully we're going to see plenty more of that as we go through the season. It's always going to be tough with the teams we play against, but I think if we show that attitude that we did today those goals will be coming for everybody."
