Florida Soccer Routed by No. 2 North Carolina

The Florida soccer team was against a formidable opponent last night in the No. 2 ranked North Carolina Tarheels. The Gators have struggled in Tony Amato’s first season as head coach and those continued last night with the Gators falling by a score of 7-1. The Gators are now 0-4 on the season against ranked opponents.

The Florida soccer team got off to a poor start and never recovered in Thursday's loss to UNC. https://t.co/gxWNQtnZzk

— WCJB TV20 News (@WCJB20) September 10, 2021

Rough Start

The opening kickoff was delayed for 45 minutes due to lightning in the area. Once the match began, it did not take long for North Carolina to open the scoring. The opening goal came in the tenth minute when a shot by Emily Murphy deflected off a Gator defender only to wind up at the feet of Emily Colton who scored the rebound with a left-footed shot.

Just three minutes later, a clearance attempt by Taylor Baksay would result in an own goal to give the Tar Heels a 2-0 lead. The lead would be increased to three in the 29th minute with North Carolina scoring off a corner kick.

Second Half

The second half saw little change in the direction of the match. North Carolina scored their fourth goal just a minute into the half as Emily Colton scored her second. The Tar Heels scored again in the 52nd minute by an Emily Murphy header to make it 5-0.

North Carolina scored for a second time via a corner kick in the 66th minute with Rachel Jones sending a shot to the top corner from 22 yards out. Less than a minute later, the Gators would score their only goal of match. A long pass attempt by Florida’s Sydney Urban was cleared by North Carolina’s Makenna Dominguez, but the North Carolina goalkeeper was off her line and the resulting clearance wound up in the net to make the score 6-1.

Match End

North Carolina scored once more in the 81st minute by way of Rachel Dorwart scoring a Rachel Jones cross. This score held for a 7-1 final. This match was the largest margin of defeat for the Gators since losing 9-0 to the same North Carolina Tarheels in 1996.

Gators’ head coach Tony Amato credited North Carolina with being a good team with a lot of good players as well as the Gators having good individual moments. The team just has things they need to clean up on.

The struggling Gators are now 1-5-1 on the season. Florida opens SEC play next Friday as they go on the road to face the Vanderbilt Commodores.

https://twitter.com/GatorsSoccer/status/1436142682645020672?s=20