There was no
way McKenzie Barney was going to miss. Not in an overtime game and
certainly not after the picture-perfect pass Erika Tymrak just
dished.
“If I don’t
finish that, I’m going to be kicking myself,” she thought.
Using a play
the two had worked on for the last three years, Barney and Tymrak
created a moment of brilliance Friday night at Pressly Stadium that
not only lifted No. 11 Florida to a 3-2 win against No. 22 Auburn,
but kept the Gators in contention for a Southeastern Conference
title.
Seven minutes
into the extra period, Tymrak, a junior, attacked the middle of the
Tigers’ defense off a pass from fellow midfielder Holly King.
At the same
time, Barney ran free across the field from her center forward
position to the left side of the box, setting up a decision for the
lone Auburn player covering Tymrak, who had scored both of
Florida’s earlier goals.
“It’s hard
for the defense to read when you have the biggest threat on the
field running at you, and you have somebody else that’s running
away from you,” Barney said. “They kind of have to choose, do they
go with me or do they go with Erika?
Instead of
pulling the trigger on a possible hat trick when the defender came
at her, Tymrak played the ball into space.
Barney
finished the golden goal opportunity from six yards out at the near
post, ending the game in victory and sending the Gators’ bench into
a frenzy.
“I don’t
blame them for stepping with Erika because she’s an awesome
player,” Barney said. “They left me wide open and I just had to
take my time and try to find the back of the net and one of their
players helped me find it.”
Just before
overtime started, UF coach Becky Burliegh had a simple message for
her veterans about to take the field.
“Don’t wait
for something to happen,” she said. “You go make it happen.”
Though Friday
night was the first time Florida (11-3, 4-1 SEC) has been pushed to
an extra period this season, it’s not the first time the team has
needed late-game heroics from Barney.
The redshirt
senior scored a game-winner against then-No. 18 Texas A&M on
Aug. 26 with just 15 seconds left in regulation.
“We’re trying
to put our seniors in the situation like that at the end of the
game, so they can be the ones to finish it and to have an impact,”
Burleigh said.
Though
Florida dominated possession for most of the match and had twice as
many shots as Auburn, two costly mental errors caused the Gators to
play from behind following the 33rd minute.
First Auburn
scored off a turnover by freshman defender Annie Bobbit, who is
starting in the place for injured junior Katie Kadera. Then, after
Tymrak’s first score tied the game, Florida had an own goal in the
51st minute off a fluky deflection by defender Maggie Rodgers.
Down 2-1,
Tymrak said she called her team together to try and prevent another
four-goal drubbing like their lone conference loss two weeks ago to
Tennessee in Knoxville.
“We’re kind
of thankful for Tennessee because we were able to learn from it,”
Tymrak said. “We knew that when [Auburn] scored, and we had our
halftime, it was, ‘Hey, we have 45 minutes to score, have fun and
pass it around. The goals are going to come.”
Refocused,
the Gators tied the game at two apiece just six minutes later when
Tymrak, again, split the Tigers’ defense down the middle. With
wingers on either side, she stretched Auburn’s back line enough to
get an open look off her left foot from 18 yards out to the near
post.
The goal was
her 11th of the year, giving her 27 points on the season – a career
high.
She said,
“Teams always expect me to pass it and I like to catch them
off-guard, so if I have the shot, I’m going to take it.”
Contact
John Boothe at jboothe@alligator.org
