By: Anthony Guivas / Staff Writer
After suffering a devastating loss at the hands of the Stetson Hatters on Aug. 19 to start this season, the Golden Panthers had their sights set on their next opponent: the Florida Gators.
The Panthers hoped to show their home crowd why they are a juggernaut in the Sun Belt Conference and pick up an upset win. But it would not be an easy task as the Florida Gators, who came into the match ranked ninth in the nation.
At exactly 7:00 p.m both the Panthers and Gators took to the field and the game immediately became a tug of war between the two teams.
FIU goalkeeper Kaitlyn Savage was tested early on by an aggressive Gator offense, but was able to keep them at bay for most of the first half with several key saves.
But Savage was not able to hold them off long enough as the Gators broke through the Panther defense and took a 1-0 lead in the 39th minute of regulation on an unassisted goal by Tessa Andujar. The goal gave Florida a one-goal lead heading into halftime.
In the second half, things got worse for the Golden Panthers as they struggled to neutralize the potent Gator offense and were unable to gain any kind of momentum offensively. In the 62nd minute, the Gators broke through again when Annie Speese and Tahnai Annis caught the FIU back line flat-footed. Speese crossed the ball from the right side to Annis, who put a shot past goalkeeper Kaitlyn Savage.
The Gators would then go on to dominate the rest of the game and would end up winning by a 2-0 score.
“They are a good team, they are not in the top 10 for no reason,” Coach Thomas Chestnutt said. “Best Florida team in a long time…the quality is very high.”
It was very clear throughout the game that the Gators speed was just too much for the Golden Panthers to endure, as the second half was completely dominated by the Gators agility.
“The speed in the attack was very good, we were not able to match it,” Chestnutt said.
So now, after back to back losses the, Panthers have fallen to 0-2-0. When asked if the loss against the Stetson had anything to do with the loss against the Gators, Chestnutt said both games were completely different.
But the Panthers will not let these consecutive losses faze them as they look at the positives instead of the negatives.
“I am not disappointed with the team; we showed we are capable of doing some positive things on the field,” Chestnutt said. “Tonight we learned what level it is to be a top ten team in the country.”
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