Florida was up against more than just La Salle on Tuesday.
The Gators (2-0) fought through the cold, rain and sleet in Philadelphia to beat the Explorers 15-5 on Temple’s field.
Leaving the sun and warm temperatures of Florida for the 35-degree weather in Pennsylvania, Amanda O’Leary’s squad had to pay keen attention to the little things to get the victory.
“When you play in this type of weather, the key is making good passes and concentrating on your fundamentals,” O’Leary said. “Despite the inclement weather, they did a great job of adjusting.”
Midfielders Brittany Dashiell and Caroline Chesterman led the Gators in scoring with four and three goals, respectively.
Midfielder Kitty Cullen and attackers Caroline Cochran and Ashley Bruns added two each. Bruns also led the team with four assists, while Cochran dished out two.
So far, Bruns owns the season lead for goals (six) and assists (eight).
O’Leary said her players did a good job of maintaining possession of the ball throughout the game, and they improved on some of her concerns entering the match.
“There was much more communication,” she said. “After the Jacksonville game, we focused on making sure that we were going to play a better team defense, and they were able to improve in that part of their game. It was good to see.”
She said the team reacted well to playing in an unfamiliar place on an unfamiliar field and even had to deal with another unusual field component — the turf.
The field at Temple was completely Astro Turf, and O’Leary said the Gators had only played on Field Turf and the grass surface at Donald R. Dizney Stadium.
Even with the adjustments it needed to make, UF remained in control of the game.
The Gators played the role of the attackers in the match, taking 23 shots on goal to the Explorers’ 10.
UF also challenged La Salle for the 19 available ground balls but picked up only eight.
Dashiell scored the first goal less than a minute into the game, giving UF the early lead.
The squad quickly landed two more in the net, and it held the Explorers scoreless until 21:50 left in the first half.
UF closed out the half scoring three unanswered goals, and at the break it led 8-3.
The second half proved to be more of the same for the Gators who continued their streak of three unanswered goals with another five to start the final period.
O’Leary said because her team has seven scoring threats, it was hard to shut down any one or two of those players, which placed the Gators in position to score as often as they did.
“That’s what our goal is on the offensive end,” she said. “To have every single one of those seven players that are on the field as threats. When we can accomplish that, like we did today, great things will happen.”
