MIAMI, Fla. - North Florida men's soccer capitalized on being up a man in the first half and held on through the end as the Ospreys defeated No. 25 FIU Sunday afternoon.
 

GOALS

42' | Jovoney Brown (Gio Abreu)
 

HOW IT HAPPENED

• North Florida opened the game with five shots including two from Bryson Smith that were blocked by the Panthers defense. Smith was in on breakaway and was taken down inside the box from behind by the last defender, but it was not called and kept the game scoreless.
• FIU played a man down after the 29th minute due to a double yellow on one of their attackers. 
• The Ospreys got on the board when Giovanny Abreu sent a perfect ball past the FIU backline and Jovoney Brown beat the defender on the right side to go one-on-one with the keeper. Brown then chipped it over the keepers head to allow it to roll into the back of the net for the 1-0 lead in the 42nd minute.
• Early In the second, North Florida faced from pressure from the Panthers attack, but after that controlled much of the action in FIU's half and created some nice scoring opportunities.  
• The Ospreys got their own dubious straight red card to even the field to 10 v 10 for the final 20 minutes.
• FIU hit the cross bar in the 75th minute on a free kick and had back-to-back corner kicks, but could not find the back of the net as the Ospreys continued to shut the game down and grab the win.

RECORDS

North Florida | 2-1
FIU | 1-1

QUICK KICKS

- FIU edged the Ospreys in shots 12-11, but UNF owned a 6-1 advantage in shots on target. 
- Padraic Gilley got the win in the net with just one save. 
- Igor Martins led the way with three shots including two on target, while Smith tallied two.

FROM THE MOUTH OF MARINATOS

"I am really proud of our guys. They battled for 90 minutes against a well-coached, very dangerous, physical top 25 opponent and we came away with a shutout. We definitely faced some adversity throughout the match on a number of fronts. I thought we caused a lot of problems with our front two and our subs at the end of the half to give us a huge boost. I thought Bendeguz and Robbie controlled the midfield and our backs dealt with first and second balls well from FIU. Late in the game when we were both a man down, our guys did a great job of killing the game off despite FIU having a few threatening moments and corners down the stretch." - head coach Derek Marinatos
 

UP NEXT

North Florida returns to Jacksonville to host FGCU to open ASUN play February 27 at Patton Park. Game time is set for 1 p.m.