The Florida Gators soccer team has a history of winning season openers, they continued that with a 5-2 win over Iowa State in the first-ever meeting between the two teams on Friday.
Iowa State started the game strong, keeping control of possession in the first minutes of the game, after that it was all Florida in the first half. Seven minutes into the first half, Sophomore Mayra Pelayo was assis put it over the keeper’s head to score the first goal of the season for the second year in a row, as she did to begin her freshman campaign last season.
With less than three minutes to go in the first half, another sophomore, this time Melanie Monteagudo floated another one over the keeper’s head and off her finger tips giving the Gators a 2-0 advantage to finish the first half.
Florida continued their dominating sophomore performance to start the second half of play with a beautiful goal into the back of the net by Sarah Troccoli. Less than two minutes later, senior Meggie Dougherty Howard broke the game wide open with another goal giving the Gators a 4-0 lead.
The Cyclones scored their first goal ten minutes into the second half, as the Gators began to look sloppy for the first time all night. They were able to add another with 26 minutes to go in the second half, but that is all the damage Iowa State would do.
After pulling defenders to herself all night and accumulating three assists, senior Savannah Jordan finally scored her first goal of the night and the 66th goal of her career for Florida’s final score of the night.
The Gators are not a team that normally takes a lot of shots, but they finished the night with a 30-6 advantage in shots over the Cyclones.
Coming Up Next
The Gators will take on FAU at home at 1 p.m. on Sunday before heading into a six game road gauntlet.
Florida Gators soccer player Savannah Jordan against Texas A&M- photo courtesy of the University of Florida