Men’s Soccer to Host Longwood

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The University of North Florida men's soccer team is set for a nonconference match against Longwood on Saturday, Sept. 18 at Hodges Stadium at 5 p.m.

Both the Ospreys and the Lancers have started off the season slow and each team will be looking for its first win in Saturday's match. After a rough opening weekend on the road, North Florida rebounded with a solid match against Georgia Southern, but two second half goals proved to be costly and saw the Ospreys fall 2-1 on Wednesday night in the 2010 home opener.

UNF (0-3-0) will look for its first win against a Lancer team that enters the weekend 0-5-0. Longwood opened the season with a double overtime loss to Richmond (L, 2-3) on the road, which was the Lancers' closest match of the season. Since the match with the Spiders, Longwood has been shutout twice – Liberty (L, 0-2) and James Madison (L, 0-3). In addition, the Lancers have been outscored 15-to-5 in their five matches. Longwood is averaging three goals allowed per match while scoring just one goal per match.

The Ospreys are 1-2-0 all-time against the Lancers in a series that started in 2006. North Florida dropped the first two matches of the series, each by a score of 3-1. However, UNF won the last meeting between the two teams, claiming a 3-1 victory over LU on Oct. 14, 2008 at Hodges Stadium. The Ospreys are 1-1-0 all-time against the Lancers in Jacksonville.

The Ospreys are 87-56-13 (.599) all-time at Hodges Stadium. Last season, North Florida collected half of its wins at home.

North Florida enters the match led by a trio of players each with two points, senior Adam O'Neill, sophomore Greg Crowell and freshman Ricky Lawrence. The trio each have two points on the season with captains O'Neill and Crowell leading the team with a goal each. Lawrence leads the team with two assists, adding the helper to both O'Neill's and Crowell's goals.

O'Neill leads the team with six shots and is followed closely by freshman Austin Doyle who has five shots, including a team-best two shots on goal.

O'Neill's goal this season was the 22nd of his career and placed the senior just three goals behind Victor Duncan (2002-04) for fourth on UNF's all-time goals scored list. O'Neill moved to seventh all-time in UNF history in points scored. With the goal, the London, England native has 51 career points, placing him just one point shy of Nate Silva (1991-94) for sixth all time.

Between the posts, true freshman Tyler Willets leads the team with 14 saves. Willets has started the last two matches in place of junior Andrew Calise who suffered an injury in the Ospreys' first match of the season.

Single-game tickets for men's matches are $5 for adults and $3 for youth 17-and-under and senior citizens 55-and-older. Children 2-and-under and any current UNF student with a valid Osprey1 Card are admitted free. Student guest passes for those events are $3 and limited to one per student.

Matches can be viewed at ASun.TV. The price is $5.99 per event or $9.99 for a month subscription. Yearly subscriptions are available for just $69.99. To purchase an event CLICK HERE. In addition, live stats will be available for the match. To view the live stats please click here.

Next Event

Footer