On a night when last season’s leading scorer played less than a half, the Gators were not at a loss for goals.
Nora Barry and Gabi Wiegand made sure of it.
Barry and Wiegand each scored five goals and Wiegand assisted on another as Florida defeated Jacksonville, 14-5, to improve to 1-1 on the season in its home opener at Donald R. Dizney Stadium.
“They’re just really dynamic,” Florida coach Amanda O’Leary said of Barry and Wiegand.
O’Leary praised Barry, a freshman midfielder, for being all over the field and said Wiegand had strong finishes on all of her shots.
Junior attacker Kitty Cullen, the Gators’ leading scorer in 2011 and in 2012 prior to playing JU, was forced to leave the game after picking up her second yellow card with 35 seconds remaining in the first half.
O’Leary said the Gators’ unselfishness allowed the team to score in spite of Cullen’s absence. Florida’s 10 assists were one away from tying a school record.
“We have a lot of players that are willing to distribute the ball to each other which is great because it gives us seven offensive threats instead of one or two,” O’Leary said.
Wiegand, a junior attacker, set the tone early for UF, completing a hat trick less than 17 minutes into the game.
With UF leading 1-0 in the seventh minute, junior midfielder Brittany Dashiell intercepted a Dolphins’ pass in the Gators’ defensive third and took the ball the length of the field. Once she got to the 8-meter arc she passed it to Wiegand on the right side of the crease. Wiegand put it past Dolphins goalkeeper Karli Tobin in the top left corner of the net.
“I just remember being really happy she got the interception,” Wiegand said. “My defender just slid up so I positioned myself and Brittany hit me.”
Barry scored the first goal of her career with 27 seconds remaining in the first half when junior attacker Ashley Bruns won a draw control in the left corner of the field. Bruns made one defender miss and passed it to Barry just outside the crease, where she put a shot inside the right post.
“I was really excited,” Barry said. “It just gives you so much adrenaline for the rest of the game and I was just happy to have that first goal under my belt.”
After the Gators went up 7-0, the Dolphins switched to a backer zone, which puts two defenders on the player with the ball, leaving one attacker open. The switch got Florida out of sync for a stretch as it went scoreless for eight minutes while Jacksonville cut the lead to 7-3.
The Gators figured out the zone and ended their scoring drought on Barry’s third goal of the game at 18:03. Dashiell had the ball and was double-teamed on the left side of the 12-meter fan. She passed it to an unguarded Barry inside the arc. Barry ran past a challenging Tobin and put the ball in the empty net to make it 8-3.
Barry scored her fourth goal 40 seconds later with an assist from Bruns, and Wiegand scored directly off of the ensuing draw nine seconds later to make it 10-3.
“Sometimes it just takes that one goal to really get the momentum going and everyone going,” Barry said.
“So I was happy I was able to score those goals.”
Florida freshman midfielder Nora Barry now leads the team in scoring after notching five goals in the Gators’ 14-5 win against Jacksonville in the home opener.
