Four different Gators scored four second-half goals to give the
No. 11 Florida soccer team (13-4-1, 10-2 SEC) a 4-0 win at Vanderbilt (5-9-5, 2-6-4
SEC) Sunday at the Vanderbilt Soccer Stadium.
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Sunday’s SEC Scores
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Florida
4, Vanderbilt 0
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South
Carolina 1, Alabama 0
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Arkansas
2, Mississippi State 1
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Kentucky
2, Auburn 1
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Texas
A&M 1, Georgia 0 2OT
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Tennessee
2, Mississippi 1
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LSU
3, Missouri 1
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One
match remains in the Southeastern Conference regular season schedule. Florida
is at South Carolina on Thursday and a win would give the Gators their 12th
league title. Florida owns 30 points in the league standings and Texas A&M
is second at 28 after its 1-0 double overtime win Sunday over Georgia. Teams
receive three points for a win and one for a tie toward the league standings.
After
a scoreless opening half Sunday, the Gator coaching staff stressed the
importance of width in Florida’s formation to allow space for the attacks to
develop.
“I
think we were a little impatient in the first half. There was a lot of space,
which made us want to go very quickly,” Florida head coach Becky Burleigh
said. “At halftime we talked about keeping possession in Vanderbilt’s defensive
half and once we did that, things opened up for us that hadn’t earlier.”
The
Gators took that message to heart, scoring three goals within an eight-minute
span just five minutes after the second half started.
The
first two goals came from distance. Senior All-American Erika Tymrak started
the scoring, hitting her fifth goal of the season at 50:04.
“I
was wide on the left side. Holly King was in the middle and gave me a really
good pass. I looked up, beat my defender then saw the far post open. I hit it
and it kind of knuckled in,” Tymrak said.
Just
under two minutes later, senior Jo Dragotta scored from 32 yards off the
ball she received from junior Taylor Travis.
“I
just looked up and saw the keeper was a little off her line so I just hit it as
hard as I could,” Dragotta said.
The
long-distance goal was much like the pair she scored in the run of play last
weekend.
“It
was like déjà vu that she scored that same goal three times,” Tymrak said. “I
told her that she had that upper 90 spot patented with her name on it.”
Dragotta
has scored six goals in her career – all this season. Four of those goals have
come in the span of the last four matches and all have come in the last nine
contests.
The
Gators were awarded a free kick just above the 18-yard box in the 58th
minute. Sophomore Havana Solaun took the shot, which hit the cross bar
and deflected down into the six-yard box. Senior McKenzie Barney placed
in the deflection with her left foot for her sixth goal of the season.
Barney
and Dragotta now share the Gator goals lead at six each.
Just
over a minute after entering the match, junior Caroline Triglia scored
her second goal of the season. Lauren Silver’s pass found fellow sophomore
Annie Speese just inside the box at end line. The centering ball she
sent found Triglia just above the six-yard box where she placed it in untouched
at 66:19.
