After five away games, the No. 4 Gators soccer team finally came home to Gainesville to beat the UCF Knights by a score of 3-2 on Sunday. This defeat over their in-state rival brought the team’s record this season to six wins and two losses.
Coach Becky Burleigh said she and her team knew the Knights wouldn’t go quietly. Senior Pamela Begic scored her first goal of the season from 22 yards out to put the Gators in the lead. After Begic, senior Savannah Jordan scored her 72nd career goal in the 53rd minute, giving her the second spot on Florida’s career goals list behind Abby Wambach. When asked about this achievement, Jordan credited her team.
WATCH: Tonight's goal by @SavannahJ__ moves her to No. 2 on #Gators & @SEC career goals charts.#GoGators pic.twitter.com/BeWJFRSQ3W
— Gators Soccer (@GatorsSoccer) September 19, 2016
Just five minutes after Florida brought the score to 2-0, however, UCF fired back with players Morgan Ferrara and Bridget Callahan scoring to tie up the game for the Knights. Fortunately for the Gators, in the last minutes of the game Florida sophomore Samantha Chung was able to break that tie with her first goal of the season off an assist by sophomore Mayra Pelayo.
Burleigh is proud of her team’s resilience coming off of a 1-2 loss at Arkansas. Their next game is this Thursday at home against Auburn.