The fifth ranked Florida soccer team opened the floodgates with four goals in the second half to beat the Mississippi Bulldogs 5-1 at James Pressley Stadium Friday night.
The Gators remain unbeaten in the SEC with a 6-0 record. They improve to 11-2 overall. The Bulldogs fall to 3-10 and remain winless in conference play.
Mississippi State its presence known at the start of the game. The Bulldogs took the lead in just the second minute of the game with a score from their first corner kick. The Gators would tie the game just eight minutes later courtesy of Florida forward Savannah Jordan.
“You know (it) certainly wasn’t the way we wanted to start the game but I thought it was really a good response by our team to come back and get that goal to equalize,” said UF soccer head coach Becky Burleigh. “Still took us a little longer than we would’ve liked to get ahead but I thought that second goal was a tough, physical goal by Savannah.”
While the game was at a stalemate for the first 60 minutes, the Gators unleashed a fury of shots to run up the scoreboard.
Jordan scored her second goal of the night (11th of the season) to start the second half stomping to take the 2-1 lead. Tessa Andujar, Brooke Sharp, and Betsy Middleton each followed her up with goals.
“I think our team is pretty confident no matter what,” Burleigh added. “But to face that adversity early just gave us a good chance to show our resilience and kind of bounce back.”
Senior forward Tessa Andujar was a bright spot for the Gators along with Jordan. In addition to Andujar’s second half goal where she chipped Mississippi State keeper Rhylee Decrane, Andujar had two assists.
“She’s an offensive threat,” Burleigh said of Andujar. “I thought they tried to match up with her pretty much the whole game and she still managed to break them down so once again – another great performance.”
Next up, the Gators will travel to Columbia to take on the South Carolina Gamecocks next Thursday (October 16).
For audio from the above quotes, click below:
Burleigh says her team responded with action after MSU drew first blood
Becky praises the performance of Tessa Andujar