JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A penetrating run through the JU defense by Carolina Lencina and a layoff pass to Thea Linkfield resulted in a goal and a 1-1 tie in the second minute of the second half.
But the tie was short lived.
JU scored two second half goals to pull away to a 3-1 victory, but head coach Linda Hamilton didn’t see any of the four goals at Southern Oak Stadium Friday night.
Hamilton was absent from the sidelines during the River City Rumble match up. Morgan Church, assistant head coach who assumed Hamilton’s duties, refused to comment on the head coach’s absence.
The expertise of Hamilton may have helped UNF (3-8-2, 0-3-0 A-Sun) crack the JU (7-5-0, 2-1-0 A-Sun) defense.
“I thought we played way better than them. We had more shots than them. Unfortunately we couldn’t finish. We made their keeper look good,” Linkfield said. The senior forward scored her team leading fourth goal of the season Friday night.
UNF outshot JU, 22 -14. A visibly disappointed Linkfield went on to say the team missed many of the shots over the top of the goal and need to work on getting the ball down and on frame.
The game had all the characteristics of a conference game. Elbows and hard fouls were as common as the oak trees surrounding the field.
“I thought we did a good job of staying strong. Sometimes we have to be smarter with not being obvious with fouls,” Linkfield said.
UNF and JU combined for 22 total fouls, 11 each.
“It’s a good rivalry between us and JU, so that’s typical. It makes the game more fun actually,” Church said.
JU’s crowd was rowdy throughout the night, never more than when JU’s Jessica Cataldo-Ramirez scored a spectacular goal from distance for the final dagger. Caraldo-Ramirez evaded the Osprey defense by pulling the ball behind he back and on to her left foot. She struck the ball that bended through 25 yards of humid night sky and off the left side of the crossbar, past diving keeper Megan Dorsey.
“We put together a good 90 minutes of soccer just on the scoreboard it didn’t come out our way,” Church said.
UNF will look to get its first conference win of the season with a pair of home games against Lipscomb and Northern Kentucky.
“We’re looking to get points, that’s what we have to do. Whether its from a tie or whether its from a win we just have to get points,” Church said.
UNF will play NKU Friday at 6 p.m. and Lipscomb at 1 p.m. on Sunday. Both games will be played at Patton Park.
