Erika Tymrak was washing the dishes with her roommate, fellow freshman Brooke Thigpen, when she made a prediction. “Brooke, I think this is gonna be the night. I’m feeling lucky tonight,” Tymrack told Thigpen.
The prediction came true. Tymrack scored her first collegiate goal against the Florida International Golden Panthers Friday night. Then the luck washed over Thigpen as well, who also responded with her first collegiate goal, putting an 88th-minute exclamation point on the No. 7 Gators’ 3-0 victory.
Tymrak scored her goal when she took a pair of passes from seniors Ashlee Elliott and Angela Napolitano and ripped the ball into the lower corner of the net in the 79th minute, increasing the Florida lead to 2-0. Up until that point, Tymrak didn’t think she was playing all that well.
“It was fun,” she said. “I wasn’t having the best game, so it felt good to get that goal.”
Thigpen got her chance to match Tymrak with two minutes remaining. She was screaming for a pass when Sarah Chapman found her with a perfect ball. Thigpen swooped by a defender and shot a strong left-footer — her non-dominant foot.
“Oh my God!” Thigpen said. “It was awesome. The fans went crazy.”
Earlier in the week, Florida head coach Becky Burleigh had some concerns. She thought the offense was going to pick up, which it did, but she wasn’t so sure about the defense. Friday night, however, she liked what she saw.
“Our shape was better defensively,” Burleigh said. “It was hard to tell because we weren’t under that much pressure. But we tried some different combinations back there tonight, and we have a lot of options. That’s a good thing.”
Depth and getting plenty of players involved in the offense had much to do with Florida’s ability to dominate Friday night.
“I think we have a lot of dynamic players who can create offense for us,” Burleigh said, “whether those are defenders or forwards or midfielders.”
“We’ve had different people score four different goals [this season], so I think that’s a good sign,” Napolitano said. “It’s hard to defend.”
Now that’ she’s helped others put the ball in the net, she’s hoping she gets her chance next game.
“Everyone always wants to score,” she said. “An assist is just as nice though, it’s always good to help the team out — especially seeing Tymrak get her first college goal.”
Despite their second-half success, the Gators got off to a slow start in the game. Neither team scored a goal in the first half, but FIU got away six shots to Florida’s four and five corner kicks to just one from Florida.
At halftime, coach Burleigh and associate head coach Victor Campbell challenged the team to pick up the intensity in the second half.
“The first half was just not a good showing from our team,” Burleigh said. “It took us 45 minutes to get in gear. Against a really top team, you might find yourself down a goal or two at that point.”
They responded with three goals.
“Part of our style is we’re gonna score more goals in the second half than in the first half just because that’s how our system works,” Burleigh said. “If we keep the ball up, it wears other teams down. At the same time, the pickup of the intensity in the second half is probably what led to our goals more than our style.”
The second half also saw an increase in defensive intensity. FIU managed just one shot and one corner kick — the Gators had their three goals, 10 shots and five corners.
Lindsay Thompson broke open the scoring in the second half with a header off of a reflected shot in the 61st minute.
Although the box score only credits senior Ashlee Elliott with an assist, she was involved in almost every offensive attack, showing a full arsenal of moves to the crowd of nearly 2,000 at James G. Pressly Stadium. She dummied balls, made backwards passes and showed off her skills in the air with a few headers.
Burleigh is happy with where her team is now, but she is looking for more as the opponents get tougher.
“[The mistakes haven’t hurt us] yet, but the bottom line is, we have to be a little sharper,” she said. “We really weren’t at the top of our game. But when you get a win at home in a shutout and you’re not at the top of your game, there isn’t too much to complain about. But that’s a coach’s job.”
The Gators (2-0) will play host to South Florida Sunday afternoon.