Frintu goal celebration_.pngEric Frintu goal celebration
Matthew Huang/ISI Photos
Men's Soccer

Stanford Opens With Statement Win

The ninth-ranked Cardinal defeated No. 21 Grand Canyon in Thursday evening's season opener

Box Score

STANFORD, Calif. — No. 9 Stanford (1-0-0) made a season-opening statement on Thursday evening, using two second-half goals to earn a 2-1 ranked win over No. 21 Grand Canyon (0-1-0) at Cagan Stadium.

The victory marks Cardinal's first win over a ranked opponent in a season opener since 2023, when Stanford defeated No. 8 Creighton 3-1 on The Farm.

"From start to finish, it was an unbelievable game of soccer," said The Knowles Family Director of Men's Soccer Jeremy Gunn. "That was a very good team we played tonight and it was a great result. The team worked hard, we controlled the game with a lot of territory and I thought we worked extremely well behind the ball."

Stanford spent much of the opening 45 minutes in Grand Canyon's half, but strong passing from the Lopes limited the Cardinal's ability to create threatening chances, sending the match into halftime scoreless.

A more aggressive approach from Stanford to open the second half helped break the deadlock in the 50th minute. The play began near the corner flag, where a battle between Alex Chow and a Lopes defender produced a loose ball for TJ Kahoalii. 

From there, Kahoalii delivered a cross into the box, where a leaping Eric Frintu finished with a bicycle kick inside the right post for the first goal of his career.

"It was a great ball from TJ and I decided to jump and go for it," said Frintu. "I caught it nice, looked up, and saw it in the back of the net. It was such a great goal and an amazing experience."

Grand Canyon did not take long to equalize, however, as Alhassan Alhassan slipped a pass to the top of the box to Sabri Hanni, who finished the left-footed strike in the 62nd minute to tie the match at 1-1.

With momentum building toward a deciding goal, it was Alex Chow who delivered in the 71st minute. Joshua Partal headed the ball to Chow on the right wing and Chow did the rest, dribbling to his left and fighting through a Grand Canyon defender before firing a strike from outside the box that bent into the top-right corner to put Stanford back in front.

The Lopes scrambled to find the tying goal with six shots in the final 12 minutes, forcing a save on an 82nd-minute header, but it was not enough as the Cardinal prevailed with the opening-night victory.

Rowan Schnebly was impressive between the posts with four saves, one shy of his career high. His most impressive save came in the 58th minute, when he made a leaping stop with his right hand to deny a Raul Vasquez attack.

Frintu, Joe Moyer and Aidan Reilly each made their first career start on Thursday, while Louisville transfer TJ Kahoalii broke the starting lineup in his Cardinal debut. The match also marked the collegiate debuts of Hugo Berg, Jayden Fitzgerald Boes, Yujin Kikuchi, Maximo Nystrom, Tim Fortier, Alex Ling and Logan Tsopanoglou, with Kikuchi getting the starting nod.

An even bout between two of the nation’s top programs, Grand Canyon finished the night with a narrow 16-15 edge in shots, while Stanford earned seven corner kicks to the Lopes’ zero.

The Cardinal returns to action on Sunday evening, hosting Denver at 7 p.m. PT at Cagan Stadium. The match will be available to stream on ACC Network Extra.