Daytona State Finishes Opening Weekend with 2 Wins on the Road
Daytona Beach, FL (dscfalcons.com): The Daytona State women's soccer team officially opened their season this past weekend down in Melbourne, Florida, playing Johnson County CC on Friday, Aug. 24th and #2 ranked Laramie County CC on Sunday, Aug. 24th. The team reported to campus July 29th, to begin their preseason preparations with 19 new freshmen. Over the course of the 4-week preseason, the Falcons played 4 extremely tough exhibition games including: Southeastern University, Stetson University, University of Tampa, and Embry-Riddle.
In Friday's matchup, the Falcons' finished the half with a lone goal by Freshman forward, Tayla Duffy (Rushen, England) 24 minute mark. The goal was assisted by Freshman midfielder Tilda Andreasson (Gothenburg, Sweden) splitting JCCC's backline at the 6 yard box, setting Duffy up for a 1 time finish. JCCC equalized 2 minutes into the second half, sneaking a ball by Freshman goalkeeper Makenna Gottschalk (Broomfield, CO), who made 5 saves on the day.
Showing great resiliance, the Falcons opened up their scoring 15 minutes later, when Freshman Forward Michelle O'Driscoll (Cork, Ireland) was able to get her head on a corner kick service by Duffy. O'Driscoll scored again 5 minutes later, after applying pressure to the JCCC backs. The final goal of the game would come at the 70 minute mark, from Sophomore Sara Machado (Destin, FL) who sent a ball across the top of the 18, where O'Driscoll flipped the ball away from a JCCC defender, and Duffy hit a half volley into the back of the net bringing the Falcons to a 4-1 victory.
Sunday's matchup was a hard fought battle between #2 ranked Laramie County. The Falcons had the only goal of the first half when at the 35th minute, O'Driscoll drew a penalty kick in the box, where she would eventually bury it in the back of the net. Laramie was able to put one past Gottschalk off of a corner 12 minutes into the 2nd half. Gottschalk finished the game with 3 saves. With 8 minutes remaining in the second half, O'Driscoll was able to again disrupt the back line, and Duffy was able to capitalize on the uncleared ball.
"I am proud of our group for their performance this past weekend and their faith in the process. We have had a challenging preseason as we have had to blend 28 new players and faced strong competition. We didn't perform as well as we would have liked in our preseason games. However, this group has shown a great deal of character and were rewarded for their dedication with two great team wins," said Coach Jones.
The Falcons' next two games are Friday, August 31st against St. Louis Community College at 6 pm at Eastern Florida's soccer complex and Sunday, Sept. 2nd in Daytona at 9:00am against Northeast Community College.