Florida Soccer Opens 2025 Home Action with 4-2 Win over Towson

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Three Gators turned in their first collegiate goals Thursday to open Florida Athletics 2025-26 home action with a win. Florida scored twice in the second half to take a 4-2 win over Towson at the Donald R. Dizney Stadium.

Florida is now 25-3-3 all-time in home openers, with wins in the last four seasons.

Weather Delay – Again!
Both matches of this season were delayed by lightning. A week ago in Tallahassee, that match was twice delayed for a total of 2 hours and 15 minutes. Tonight, the players were pulled from the pitch after just over 12 minutes of action and returned to play 2 hours and eight minutes later.

Tonight’s Scoring:
The Tigers were the first to score after the delay, with Sydney Feiler one-touching in the ball from Kale’a Perry from eight yards in the 20th minute.

Freshman Katie Johnston hit her first collegiate goal off her first collegiate shot in the 31st minute to tie the match. The play started when Madison Jones won the ball and found Johnston about 30 yards from goal. Johnston drove forward about 10 yards before striking a left-footed shot to the left of keeper.

Another collegiate first goal – this time by senior Njeri Butts – came less than three minutes later. Johnston played the ball down the middle, enabling Butts to show her speed as she ran the ball down for a left-footed tap-in at the near post.

The Tigers tied the match in the 42nd minute when Perry scored off the pass from Emely Rubio.

Towson went a player down in the 49th minute when Gracen Houck was given her second yellow card after fouling Johnston on a goal scoring chance.

Johnston earned the brace in the 57th minute. Sophomore Ryleigh Acosta started the play, getting the ball to freshman Addy Hess. Johnston ran down the ball Hess played through the middle to score her second goal of the match.

Another Gator – sophomore Skye Barnes – became the third of the evening to score her first collegiate goal. She headed in the corner kick sent it by Johnston from four yards at the far post in the 68th minute.

DYK:

* Katie Johnston is the 21st in Florida’s 31 seasons to score multiple goals in the same match as her first collegiate goal. The last were Molly Grant and Megan Hinnenkamp (Aug. 27, 2023) versus Stetson. Hinnenkamp turned in three double goal matches in 2023.
* Two who have seen most of their collegiate minutes as a defender scored tonight. Skye Barnes plays outside back for the Gators. Njeri Butts moved from the backline to a more attacking role for the Gators during the 2024 season. She played as an outside back for Jamaica in a pair of friendly matches versus Chile in February.

Coach Bohon Said:
On this evening’s win:

“A lot of credit to Katherine {Vettori, Towson head coach} and her group. She was like that as a player – really gritty and worked really hard, never gave up – and you could see her team took on that personality so we knew they weren’t going to go away easily. That’s why we were a little bit frustrated at halftime that we didn’t put away more chances because we felt like we could have had a little bit more of a cushion.

“But again, shows real sign of growth from last year to this year to put four goals away against a pretty gritty team and have three first time goal scorers is really exciting. So it was a good night. Anytime you get a result against a good, competitive team like Towson, you’re happy.” – Florida Head Coach Samantha Bohon

Katie Johnston getting a brace in match with first collegiate goal:

“Listen, we’ve seen that. So that didn’t surprise anybody on the Gator sideline. From the recruiting standpoint, we’ve had so many people wonder ‘Where did you find her?’ So her performance didn’t surprise us.

“The five goals we scored in exhibition play hadn’t been with our forwards. So to see two of our forwards get on the board was really helpful, because we could be really dangerous in the attack if we can get them going.” – Florida Head Coach Samantha Bohon

On Njeri Butts scoring her first goal:

“She’s probably tired of me saying this, because I feel like we believed in her a lot – a lot longer than maybe she has believed in herself. So honestly, we’re not surprised. Njeri could be one of the best forwards and personalities in the SEC and you’ve seen her start this senior season with a real energy and emotion. So I’m just really proud of her – we’ve got high, high goals for this girl in her last year.” – Florida Head Coach Samantha Bohon

Records:
Florida: 1-1, 0-0-0 SEC
Towson: 1-1, 0-0-0 CAA

Series Record:
Florida leads 1-0-1

Next Up:
Florida continues home action Sunday against North Florida (1-1-1, 0-0 ASUN). The Eagles split in their season-opening road trip, starting the season with a 2-0 win at Howard and dropping a 1-0 decision at Campbell. UNH opened home action Thursday with a 1-1 tie versus Florida International.

vs North Florida
Date: Sunday, Aug. 24
Time: 7 p.m. ET
Site: Donald R. Dizney Stadium<https://floridagators.com/sports/2020/4/4/donald-r-dizney-stadium.aspx> (1,500)
Stream: SEC Network +<https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/82fa19a5-6d69-4b39-8287-766c396855ac> with Ryan Urquhart and Matthew Stubbington calling the action
Radio: ESPN Gainesville 98.1 FM / 850 AM<https://www.wruf.com/listen-live/> with Sky Lebron and Marty Pallman calling the action
StatBroadcast<https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=595584>
Admission: Free for all Gator soccer regular-season matches
Promotions: Sunday Funday: Grab a 2025 Gators schedule poster and a balloon animal pre-match. Check out list of 2025 Florida Soccer home promotions<https://floridagators.com/news/2025/8/18/florida-soccer-2025-home-promotions-schedule.aspx>.

Towson (1-1, 0-0 CAA) at Florida (1-1, 0-0 SEC)

Stadium: Donald R. Dizney Stadium (1,019)

Weather: 87 degrees, lightning, winds SW at 7 mph

Goals by Period

Total

Towson

Florida

Scoring Summary:

No.

Time

Team

Goal Scorer

Assist