Owls Earn 1-0 Shutout Victory at North Florida

Tuesday, October 26

Jacksonville, Fla.

7 PM

Florida Atlantic

8-4-2, 2-2-2

North Florida

4-7-1, 2-4-0

Fla. Atlantic

North Florida

10/26/2021 10:05:00 PM | No. 22 Men's Soccer

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Florida Atlantic University men's soccer team (8-4-2, 2-2-2 in Conference USA) just needed one goal to defeat North Florida (4-7-1, 2-4 in Atlantic Sun Conference) on Tuesday night, 1-0. With Ivan Mykhailenko's goal at the 57th minute and sound defense throughout the match, the Owls clinched another winning record. This marks the first time since 2003 and 2004 FAU will finish the season above .500.

How It Was Decided

First Half
The Owls got off to an aggressive start, as Davide Romeo and Pontus Steffensen each delivered great shotts on target at the ninth minute. Both attempts were knocked away by the UNF keeper and the match remained knotted at zero. FAU continued to dominate possession on the attacking third of the field, but UNF began to find its footing over halfway through the first. At the 43rd minute, UNF came up with its third shot of the game, but defender Tim Bernhardsson came up with a crucial save defensively. After 45 minutes of play, the scored was knotted at zero with FAU having a 5-3 advantage in shots.

Second Half
Both sides were quiet on the offensive side of the ball until the 57th minute when Tom Abrahamsson set up for a corner kick. A nice ball by Abrahamsson found its way to Vasilis Spinos whose shot was rebounded into Mykhailenko's lap. Mykhailenko found the back of the bottom right of the net to put the Owls on the board, 1-0. The Ospreys had a few missed opportunities for the equalizer in the final 20 minutes of play, as FAU remained tight on defense. Although the Owls were looking for some insurance, they continued to dominate possession, which helped the team wind down the clock and leave Jacksonville with a 1-0 win.

Of Note

Mykhailenko scored his seventh goal of the season, which also marks the 20th of his three-year career. He is currently tied for fifth in all-time career goals and stands at second in career game-winning goals (10) in FAU history
Spinos tallied his second assist of the season and logged big stops for the backline
Abrahamson's assist puts him at four on the yar, which is the second most on the team
Strauber delivered three saves on the night. The team had a total of four saves following Bernhardsson's defensive stop
With the shutout, Strauber has three on the season and seven in his career, the fourth most in school history
Alonso Coello Camarero was all over the pitch tonight, setting up opportunities for FAU. He had three shots as well
Coello Camarero, Spinos and Strauber logged all 90 minutes of the match
FAU ended the night with an 11-5 shot advantage with both sides tallying four shots on target
The team's eight wins is the most since 2005
FAU now has an 8-3 all-time advantage over UNF

Worthen's Words of Wisdom

"I'm really pleased with the guys. For us to go on the road and get two wins in two tough games on the road is fantastic," said head coach Joey Worthen. "To get a shutout tonight was great. Neil [Strauber] made big saves to keep the shutout, and I'm just really pleased with the team overall. We played a lot of guys, we dominated the game and found a way to get the goal and close out the game. I think it was a really mature overall team performance. We are really happy with that and the way we played and we were able to rest some guys and get a bunch of guys some minutes as well. I told the team we are happy with that and now we look forward to FIU. We have some momentum here in the last couple of games and I'm really excited to play a big conference game against our rivals at home."

Up Next

FAU will host FIU for the final home match of the season on Saturday, Oct. 30 at noon. Senior Day festivities will commence prior to first touch.

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