Playing in front of their home crowd for the first time in five games, the Gators didn’t disappoint.
No. 4 Florida (6-2) came in looking to rebound from a 2-1 road loss to Arkansas on Friday, where it allowed the Razorbacks to score twice in a three-minute period.
Behind the performance of Savannah Jordan, they were able to do just that, winning 3-2 against in-state rival UCF (5-4) while also wrapping up non-conference play for the season.
Jordan, who scored her 72nd career goal in the 53rd minute off an assist from sophomore Mayra Pelayo and senior Meggie Dougherty Howard, moved up to the No. 2 spot on Florida’s career goals list.
Jordan ranks behind only Abby Wambach, who had 96 during her career at Florida.
“I give a lot of credit to my team, most all of it. Without those crosses, balls played into me, I wouldn’t be able score any of those,” Jordan said. “Most of the credit goes to them, and then I happened to be the last one to touch it.”
But it wasn’t easy getting past the Knights.
In the 33rd minute, Pamela Begic put the Gators on the board first, scoring with a shot from 22 yards out.
It was her first goal of the season.
“It’s always exciting to score, but I think it’s been overall a great performance by the entire team,” Begic said.
“I think we all deserve a lot of credit tonight. It was a hard battle.”
After Jordan put the Gators up 2-0 in the second half, UCF scored two unanswered goals.
The first came from Morgan Ferrara who scored from 14 yards out in the 58th minute and the second from Bridget Callahan in the 74th minute.
But the Gators didn’t panic.
With less than three minutes remaining, sophomore Samantha Chung sealed the victory and scored her first goal of the season off an assist from Pelayo to put the Gators up 3-2.
“It honestly feels amazing,” Chung said. “We all put in the effort and we worked hard and finally got the goal.”
The Gators will finish their regular season with nine consecutive SEC opponents starting with Auburn on Thursday.
Contact Lauren Staff at lstaff@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter @lstaff27.
Florida's Pamela Begic dribbles during UF's 3-2 win over UCF on Sept, 18, 2016, at James G. Pressly Stadium.
