Gator Soccer Drops Season Opener 3-0 at Central Florida

ORLANDO, Fla. – Florida soccer opened 2022 with a 3-0 loss Thursday evening at Central Florida.

Thursday’s scoring:
Florida withstood a couple of UCF close attempts in the opening few minutes and then settled in to create their own chances. Senior Kouri Peace’s speed put pressure on the UCF goalkeeper but Peace’s outstretched foot couldn’t reach the ball inside the six-yard box. Redshirt freshman Sophie White hit the Gators’ first shot on goal in the 27th minute as that shot was stopped by UCF’s Caroline DeLisle.

The Knights did all their scoring in the second half. Kristen Scott scored the match’s opening goal in the 54th minute off the assist from Polly Watson. After running down the ball Watson sent into the box, Scott drove on a slanted run to score on a right-footed eight-yard shot.

Mathilde Kack sent the ball from the top of the Gator defensive third deep in the box. Dayana Martin’s right-footed sharply angled shot scored at the far post in the 77th minute.

Mallory Olsson finished the scoring in the 82nd minute when she put in the deflection off the post.

Florida Coach Samantha Bohon saw some positives but the second-half lapses cost the Gators tonight.

“I’m really happy with the work rate. I’m really happy with the team and some of the things that we did on the field was really good. But we just need to do that for 90 minutes and not 75 minutes,” Florida Head Coach Samantha Bohon said.

Sixteen Gators appeared in Thursday’s season opener, with all playing 22 minutes or more.

Tonight’s match was the first for Florida’s Bohon. She became the Gators third coach in the program’s 28-season history in May after leading Embry-Riddle for 15 seasons.

Records:
Florida: 0-1-0, 0-0-0 SEC
Central Florida: 1-0-0, 0-0-0 AAC

Series Record:
Florida leads 14-7-1

What the Coach Bohon Said:
On tonight’s result:

“I’m a competitor. So coming up short from getting a win, I’m obviously very disappointed with that, especially with the score being three nothing because I definitely didn’t feel like that was indicative of the play. But we told our players that we played really hard. It was very even for 75 minutes and then the last 15 minutes, just really a credit to them, they punished us. Tiffany and Tim run a good program so we knew we needed to play 90 minutes strong and we just didn’t finish the game the way we wanted to,.

“We have a lot of young players and so that’s part of the learning curve. I’m really happy with the grit. I’m really happy with the work rate. I’m really happy with the team and some of the things that we did on the field was really good. But we just need to do that for 90 minutes and not 75 minutes.” – Florida Head Coach Samantha Bohon

Gators play again Sunday at Stetson

“The best thing coming off a loss is to try and go at it again. So I know that the players are really excited about being able to have another chance in the next couple of days. But more importantly, we just need to figure out how we can get better from this. Find the good and make the bad things a little bit better as we turn our focus to Stetson on Sunday.” – Florida Head Coach Samantha Bohon

Next Up:
Florida continues its opening weekend Sunday at Stetson. The Hatters won 5-0 over South Carolina State Thursday in Deland, Fla.

Sunday, Aug. 21 at Stetson
Time/Site: 6 p.m. at Athletic Training Center<https://gohatters.com/facilities/athletic-training-center/5>
Streaming Video: Hatter Vision<https://www.youtube.com/c/HatterVision>
Radio: ESPN 98.1 FM / 850 AM<https://www.wruf.com/listen-live/> with action called by Kyle Crooks and Matthew Stubbington
Tickets: : $5 general admission; $3 group general admission Stetson Tickets<https://www.ticketreturn.com/prod2new/BuyNew.asp?EventID=329704>
Live Stats<https://gohatters.com/sidearmstats/wsoc/summary>

Florida (0-1-0, SEC 0-0-0) at UCF (1-0-0, 0-0-0 AAC)

Stadium: UCF Soccer and Track Complex (850)

Weather: 94 degrees, drippy

Goals by Period

Total

Florida

UCF

Scoring Summary:

No.

Time