The Gators couldn’t dig into its bag of tricks to mount a comeback at Scully-Fahey Field.
For the first 12 minutes, Florida and Dartmouth traded goals, leading to a 5-4 Big Green lead after a goal by UF’s senior attacker Grace Haus. Soon after, No. 13 Dartmouth (4-0) rattled off four straight to build a 9-4 lead with 25 minutes remaining in the game.
Each time the Gators (4-2) found a spark, the opposing offense would stifle the flame, going on to beat No. 5 Florida 13-9 in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Within the first two minutes, Haus committed the first foul, and what cascaded was an avalanche of penalties that forced the Gators out of their rhythm, leading to 23 total fouls, including seven yellow cards. Senior defender Cara Trombetta accounted for two of them, forcing a premature exit from the game; she had three other fouls and a draw controlled.
Fouls were one of the few stats the Big Green were able to end the game with an advantage. They finished with 16 and had 23 shots on goal to UF’s 17, three more free position goals (six) and had seven more successful clears (18).
The Gators’ advantages came in saves, 10 to eight; draw controls, 14 to 10; assists, three to two; ground balls, 15 to 14 and turnovers, nine to 10.
By game’s end, junior midfielder Shannon Kavanagh had another full stat sheet, finishing with four goals and added an assist, two ground balls, one caused turnover and seven draws. She’s kept her program-best 40-game streak of a draw controlled alive through today’s performance.
Redshirt junior middie Brianna Harris was close behind. She scored her fourth hat trick of the season, which got her to 100 career points. She’s the 18th Gator to do so. She also had two assists, four ground balls and two draws controlled.
But though Haus had two goals of her own, the team was unable to provide offense outside of its big three.
Defensively, redshirt freshman goalie Sarah Reznick came away with another double-digit save performance, but she was not able to replicate the kind of dominant performance as she’s had in weeks past to keep the unit afloat while the offense attempted a comeback. Additionally, Florida’s game plan could not adjust to the Big Green’s potent offense, leading to a combined eight goals from attackers Sophia Turchetta and Katie Bourque.
The Gators will have an opportunity to rectify today’s loss when they play High Point Saturday at the Donald R. Dizney Stadium at noon.
Follow Christian Ortega at @unofficialchris. Contact him at cortega@alligator.org.
Shannon Kavanagh
