ORLANDO, Fla. – Junior Matthew Hollyoak found the back of the net for the first time in his collegiate career on Wednesday night against Central Florida, but the Knights netted three balls to defeat the Ospreys, 3-1.
UNF (3-5-0) faced a two goal deficit at the half after UCF (4-3-0) scored goals in the 25th and 45th minute. Both goals were scored by Ryan Roushandel, his first and second goals of the season. For the first, Roushandel fired a shot from over 30 yards that split the posts. His second goal came on a penalty kick that resulted form UNF keeper Tony Restino receiving a red card.
“We must come out of the gates stronger,” UNF head coach Ray Bunch said. “We put ourselves in a hole early and make it nearly impossible to dig out of it.”
Hollyoak scored a little over six minutes into the second half after taking a pass from junior Sebastian Bianchi. The assist was Bianchi’s first in his UNF career.
“We looked much better in the second half,” Bunch said. “But it seemed like it was too little too late.”
Freshman Jullian Beau saw his first action of the season, playing in goal for UNF for a little more than 45 minutes after Restino’s ejection. He allowed two goals, one a penalty kick, and made three saves.
The Ospreys have an eight-day break before opening Atlantic Sun Conference play on Oct. 3 at East Tennessee State.
“The break is good for us right now,” Bunch said. “We can use it to catch up since we still feel like we are about a week behind where we wanted to be, which all stems from losing a week of practice at the beginning of August due to all the weather in the area. We will use this time off to regroup, work on some things and be in our strongest form to start conference play.”