Gators soccer falls to Missouri 3-2

Florida Gators lost on the road to Missouri 3-2 at Audrey J. Walton Soccer Stadium on Sunday afternoon. The Gators are now 2-11 in the season.

Keeper Alexa Goldberg saw action in the goal after taking an injury to the face in their game against Arkansas. She walked onto the field with bandages above her eye and walked towards the goal to prepare for the Tigers.

First half goes to the Tigers

Missouri took only two minutes to put one on the board breaking a three-game scoring drought. Hannah Boughton set up teammate Elena Zuchowski for her first collegiate goal.

https://twitter.com/MizzouSoccer/status/1579173179435556865

In the first half, the Tigers only gave the Gators a few moments to create some plays.

Oakley Rasmussen took the first shot for Florida at 5:41. About 30 seconds later, Julianne Leskauskas came back with a shot off a corner kick.

When Florida had the ball in Missouri’s half, the Tigers’ defense struggled to clear it out. However, the Gators never seemed to be where they needed to be to score. Kouri Peace looked to assist in a goal with a cross to switch sides of the field, but no one was on the receiving end of the assist.

At 28:03, Anna Deleon cleared the ball and Missouri’s Kylee Simmons intercepted to score in the bottom right with her right foot, 2-0.

https://twitter.com/MizzouSoccer/status/1579180138805067776

The Gators played aggressively with seven fouls and put up six shots.

Gators soccer tries to come back

The second half was different for the Gators. They held possession more often, moved the ball more and switched it to different sides of the field. Missouri kept the ball on its right side and this aided Florida in picking up on how the Tigers would make plays.

Syd Kennedy moved down the field and sent a cross to Tessa Barton. Barton collided with keeper Bella Hollenbach when reaching for the ball giving Missouri a free kick.

Soon after the Gators returned for a corner kick by Delaney Tauzel that Barton scored off of with a header at 53:31, 2-1.

Florida maintained possession of the ball for the majority of the half but still played rough like in the first half. They racked up 11 fouls one of them allowing Missouri to score on a penalty kick putting them up by two, 3-1.

That goal lit up the Gators as they pushed down the field trying to close the gap. Florida set each other for scoring but did not execute until Maddy Pirrello passed the ball to Syd Kennedy to score, 3-2.

https://twitter.com/GatorsSoccer/status/1579200203072344064

The rest of the game was a bit of a back-and-forth with Missouri trying to maintain possession so that the Gators could not equalize.

Missouri won 3-2 and broke their streak of not putting up a goal and winning their first SEC game since September 16 against Auburn.

The Gators play against the Kentucky Wildcats on Sunday, October 16.