The University of North Florida’s women’s soccer tied their first home game of the season playing against the University of Florida. Neither the Ospreys nor the Gators scored a goal during Thursday night’s contest.
Both teams had trouble navigating to the goal and there were no shots for the first 20 minutes of the game. UF opened the shot attempts with two consecutive tries with about 25 minutes left in the half.
During Florida’s first goal shot, 24 minutes in, UNF goalkeeper Sofia Miliancano made a diving two-handed deflection to preserve the 0-0 tie. The Ospreys offense could not generate a shot attempt in the first half.
35 minutes into the opening half, UNF defender Brialyn Anderson received a yellow card, which prompted the game to be stopped.
Following the 0-0 halftime tie, the Ospreys flipped a switch. Less than ten seconds into the final frame, North Florida took a shot against the Gators. Florida had a goal-kick opportunity in the 55th minute, but the shot attempt sailed over the net.
The Ospreys offense shook things up with a pair of corner kicks and shots on goal in the 70th minute. Although North Florida didn’t score, head coach Eric Faulconer gave the team credit for their adjustments in the second half.
“A couple of things they did gave us trouble in the first half,” Faulconer said. “They started to slip two players out wide in the midfield and they started picking up that free player, we kind of fixed that in the locker room.”
But most of all, Faulconer complimented his bench for the boost of “energy” they brought to the game.
“We trust our bench,” Faulconer said. “We got some good minutes from people that really helped. That gave us some energy.”
North Florida certainly brought more energy to the final period. Before game’s end, the Ospreys attempted three more shots and four more corner kicks.
“In the second half, you could argue that maybe we were the better team…[But] obviously they were better in the first half,” Faulconer said. “The result’s fair in the end.”
Thursday’s game was the Osprey’s third non-conference game of the season. North Florida now has a 1-1-1 overall after matches with Miami, Florida and Florida State respectively. The Ospreys win against Miami was the program’s first win against a Power 4 school, which according to Faulconer, gave his team some early momentum.
“We feel good about [the game],” Faulconer said. “I think we have momentum, over the course of these three games we did something.”
The Ospreys will remain at home this weekend as they host Alabama A&M, Sunday at Hodges Stadium. Kickoff is at 11 a.m.
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