Florida won Friday night but lost an important piece of its team moving forward.
The No. 2 Gators (8-0) used a strong second half to fend off visiting No. 15 Boston College (4-3) 13-5, led by a foursome of goals by junior attacker Sammi Burgess.
However, junior midfielder Mollie Stevens, the team-leader in goals, was hit with a red card early in the second half of the win after hitting a BC player with her stick, forcing her out of the remainder of the match. Per league rules, she is also required to sit out Monday’s game against Towson.
“I think that we need to start realizing that how we conduct ourselves affects each and every person on our team,” Burgess said.
Stevens exited the game with no goals, ending her 31-game scoring streak that dated back to May 2, 2014.
The game was very physical on both sides — UF and BC combined for 34 fouls in the match.
For the first six goals of the game, Florida and Boston College traded scores, starting with an Eagles’ goal from senior midfielder Sarah Mannelly.
Following a goal from Devon Schneider to tie the game up a three apiece, the Gators went on to score three more unanswered, bringing the score to 6-3, before going into halftime with a 6-4 lead.
Florida coach Amanda O’Leary said that UF started out sloppy and allowed BC to capitalize on the miscues, but corrected its mistakes after the third goal by the Eagles.
UF pulled ahead in the second half, allowing just one goal from the Boston College while scoring seven of its own.
O’Leary credited the second half dominance to the rhythm the defense found following halftime.
“We sat back and kinda waited for them to come to us,” she said.
The Gators were efficient with their shots, scoring their 13 goals on just 19 attempts.
“Personally, I try to focus on the goal rather than the goalie,” she said. “If we can finish our shots, I really think we can be unbeatable.”
Throughout the match, the Eagles held onto the ball for as long as eight minutes at a time — the possession game looked to be their priority all night.
But due to the chemistry and conditioning of the Florida backline, BC came up empty on many of its possessions, converting just 5 of 15 goals.
“Runs that are 10 minutes long or two minutes long, it's really helpful to know what each other is going to do,” defender Taylor Bresnahan said. “If a team holds the ball for 10 minutes, it doesn't really tire us out that much because we are in good shape.”
The UF defense will be put to the test Monday night at 6:30 at home against another ranked opponent in co-No. 15 Towson.
Contact Kyle Brutman at kbrutman@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @KBrut13.
UF's Mollie Stevens attempts to make a play on the ball during Florida's 12-11 win over Michigan on Feb. 13, 2016, at Donald R. Dizney Stadium.
