Richard Gibson/Staff Writer
Even a two-hour rain delay couldn’t cool down the Panthers.
In the first game of the 2019 season, the mens soccer team put up five goals against the St. Bonaventure Bonnies, who only put up one.
Despite all the rain that fell onto the field, it stayed relatively dry and didn’t look like a problem for either side.
From the start, FIU proved that they had the advantage over the Bonnies. In the 9th minute, Inigo Sagardy kicked things off with the first goal of the game. Initially, Owen Green was said to score the goal, but after further review, it was revealed that the goal belonged to Sagardy.
Green scored his own in the 23rd minute, however. A rhythm formed for the Panthers. Every goal scored except for one was assisted, and the majority of them came from the counter-attack.
St. Bonaventure sneaked in a goal in the 41st minute. This turned out to be the only mistake the Panthers made. The team began to bulk up defensively, making multiple saves, sliding and launching themselves in front of the ball, just in the nick of time.
Andrew Booth quickly responded to the Bonnies goal with his own, in the 42nd minute. From here on out, the game was completely in FIU’s control.
“We managed to score goals off of things that we worked on in the preseason. We worked on set-pieces, and the first two goals were set-pieces. One negative was that we conceded a sloppy goal when we were two up, but it was overall a positive performance, and I think we can be proud of that.” said Booth.
St. Bonaventure had opportunities to score, including free kicks and breakaways, but FIU’s defense proved too much to handle. And while the Bonnies recorded multiple saves of their own, their defense eventually gave away, and the flood gates opened for FIU.
In the 48th minute, Matias Barroza scored and the Panthers played a rather neutral game. They killed time off the clock while not allowing any offense from St. Bonaventure.
Andrew Booth doubled down on his goals scored again in the 55th minute. A ricochet off the top of the Bonnies’ goalpost landed right in front of Booth, landing the only unassisted goal in the game.
From here, the Panthers went back to neutral and allowed next to no opportunities for St. Bonaventure to score, running the clock down to zero. And with that, the Panthers won the match by a score of 5-1.
The victory proves promising as the Panthers only scored 5 goals in a single match once all of last season. The Panthers finished the 2018 season with a 7-10 record, losing to both Duke and Elon in the 2018 John Rennie Nike Invitational.
Last season the Panthers made it to the Conference USA Tournament but lost to Marshall by a score of 1-2. The 7-10 season record is coming off a 2017 season in which the Panthers went 12-2-4.
FIU’s head coach, Kevin Nylen, is returning for his fourth season as head coach. During his time, he’s helped to build the Panthers into one of the top teams in the Conference USA, including a 2015 stint that saw a 12-7-1 record, and a Conference USA Tournament Championship.
When asked about Hurricane Dorian and the relation it had on the team’s preparation and performance, Coach Nylen responded “We dealt with this in 2017. We control what we can, and we can’t control the weather. We’re being safe and staying together. I can’t say it really had an effect, but I’m glad the guys were able to put in a shift tonight and get a result.”
The rest of the 2019 season for the Panthers includes opponents from the SEC and AAC. Some notable home games include UNF on September 17th, Old Dominion on September 21st, Charlotte on October 18th, and Marshall on November 8th to close out the season.
About Post Author
