After the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles tromped the Ospreys 7-1 last season, the UNF men’s soccer team will take on the Eagles Oct. 2 at Hodges Stadium in their first conference game of the year.
“Last year’s game against Gulf Coast was kind of a bogey game for us,” Head Coach Ray Bunch said. “You have those days where everything goes right or everything goes wrong, and the game against Florida Gulf Coast was one of those days where everything went wrong.”
An obstacle for the Ospreys in evening the goal tally is Eagles junior goalie Adam Glick, who had four shut out games last season. At six feet two inches tall, Glick even played in a game with the largest margin of victory in the history of the Eagles soccer program.
The Eagles are one of the best teams in the conference, Bunch said. If you just look at their record, you can see that they have a good standard team. Though the record for UNF so far doesn’t look as good because a lot of its players are injured, Bunch added that they will be in good shape for conference play.
At the beginning of the teams’ match last season, UNF gave up an own goal in the fourth minute off a defender. The Eagles then answered with two goals in a row and eventually ended the first half with a score of 4-1.
“This time we hope to learn from our stupid mistakes because the conference games are what count at the end of the season,” Bunch said.
To give them even more support for the upcoming rivalry match, the Ospreys have had a good, strong and boisterous support system in the stands for the past few games, he said.
“The fans are like our twelfth man on the field,” Bunch said. “They are the support we need and will help us go into the conference strong.”
Last year the Ospreys played four games during the week of their Florida Gulf Coast match. This year they are not following the same schedule, hopefully playing out in their favor.
“The conference this year is strange. Usually I can tell who will make it to the top,” Bunch said. “I can’t say who will make it to the top or be at the bottom [this year].”
