In their first games of the season, Florida A&M’s men’s and women’s soccer club teams lost to their cross town rivals Florida State Sunday afternoon on the FAMU intramural field.
The women’s team was unable to overcome six first-half goals by FSU on its way to an 8-1 defeat.
Junior midfielder Katie Trescott scored the Rattlers lone goal on a penalty kick in the 61st minute to cut the score to 7-1.
A botched back pass to the Seminole goalkeeper resulted in a handball inside the penalty area to set up Trescott’s tally.
“There are some things we need to work on,” said women’s team captain Shayla Shell. “They haven’t done anything we haven’t seen, anything we don’t know how to defend.”
While she wasn’t thrilled with her team’s performance Sunday, Shell said that her team would work out the kinks before heading to Gainesville and possibly face the Seminoles again in the UF Fall Invitational this weekend.
Although the scoreboard did not reflect it, the men’s 4-1 loss to FSU turned out to be an entertaining game.
FAMU got on the board first in the seventh minute as senior Ulric Bigby curled a left-footed shot around the FSU goalie for a 1-0 lead.
“I was ecstatic,” said Bigby on scoring the goal. “To come out and score the first goal of the season against a team that shut us out last year.’
FAMU was only able to keep its lead for five minutes when a John Scoriasch header beat Rattler goalie Will Brown to tie the game at one.
Florida State had numerous opportunities in the first half, but the Rattler defense and Brown prevented any balls from finding the back of the net.
The defense was able to bend for so long, before FSU midfielders Leonardo Calle and Brent Hodge scored goals in the last five minutes of the first half to give Florida State a 3-1 lead at halftime.
A steady rain slowed down the play in the second half, as members of both teams lost their footing on shot attempts and simple passes.
The slick field also brought out the tough tackling that has been a common place in the rivalry between the teams.
After knocking on the door countless times in the game, Gabe Monthan finally beat Brown three minutes before full time as he placed a shot below the reach of Brown and just inside the right post.
“We weren’t too far off,” said midfielder Brent Radix. “We need to improve in our fitness. They have more unity and togetherness than us.”
The men’s soccer team will travel to Gainesville with the women’s team to play in the UF Fall Invitational. In three tournament games last year, the men’s team was outscored 11-4.
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