Fresh off their win over then No. 1 ranked Florida State, the Florida Gators women’s soccer team was looking to continue their moment in a Friday night contest with the Oklahoma State Cowgirls.
In the opening minutes, the Lady Gators looked to be handling the ball well, but the visitors from Stillwater made the Gators respect their aggressiveness. Only two minutes and 33 seconds into the game, Oklahoma State drove the ball quickly down the field with Marlo Zoller finishing it off for the game’s opening goal.
Not how the Gators would have liked to start the game. But the top-ten ranked Gators didn’t blink. They proceeded to slow the game down, get into a rhythm, and set the tempo for the rest of the first half.
As is true with most sports, if your team sets the tempo you have a much greater chance of winning; and that was certainly true Friday, as Florida had the ball on Oklahoma State’s side of the field for what appeared to be almost the entire half.
Through a combination of solid footwork, a plethora of passes, and shots on the goal, the Lady Gators kept the pressure on the Cowgirls and did not allow them to score again that half. The Gators, however, did score — twice.
The first goal of the night, as well as the first of Brooke Sharp’s season (and wouldn’t be her last), began with a lobbed pass landing within a few feet of the goal. It was blocked, though, by a host of Cowgirls and landed to the turf before Sharp snuck Florida’s opening goal inside the left corner.
The Lady Gators second goal came 37 minutes and 10 seconds into the half on a shot headed in by Liz Slattery off of the corner kick of Lauren Smith. Besides the lone goal to start the game, the Gators showed exactly why they had defeated the top-ranked team in the country in their prior game.
For all the confidence and attack they had shown in the first half, the second half seemed to be marked by a very different defensive attitude.
Whether the Lady Gators realized it or not they began playing on their side of the field more often than any fan would be comfortable with. That’s not necessarily an excoriation of the team as it is a remark on the ever increasing aggressiveness of the Oklahoma State Cowgirls.
As the game wore on, they only continued attacking and that was one of the more truly entertaining aspects of the game. Throughout the second half, the Gators continued to cling to their 2-1 lead until 65 minutes and 52 seconds into the game when Haley Woodard deflected a Florida pass to Courtney Dike. She then drove the ball down the rest of the field and scored a goal with nice touch over the head of Kaylan Marckese.
Fortunately for the Gators, they were able to regain some of their first-half rhythm, drive down the field, and attempt some shots, but none went in. This left the score tied 2-2 as the clock read 0:00.
Entering the 10 minute extra period, Florida needed to find some way to re-establish itself and find a way to score one goal. Immediately, they found their swagger.
Throughout the entire overtime, the Gators looked like they were the hunters of the first half again, not the hunted of the second half. They didn’t find their golden goal, however, until there was only 19 seconds left in the period.
Through multiple Cowgirl defenders, Brooke Sharp again fired a shot into the bottom left corner of the goal- lifting them past the Oklahoma State Cowgirls.
Despite an up-and-down night, the Lady Gators ended the game as the hunters, and that’s a tale any team would want told.
Game Notes:
There were two yellow cards handed out on the night: one to Florida’s Kristen Cardano and the other to Oklahoma State’s Haley Woodard. Also, a referee accidentally found himself involved in the game as a pass ricocheted off of his foot when Florida was driving with a little over 1 minute to play in regulation. It had no effect, however, as Sharp’s second goal in the extra period gave the Lady Gators the win.