Another rainy day in Boca Raton did not slow down the Owls as they got past North Florida 2-0 in the first match won by two goals or more since 2014 in the series.
Not much happened to begin the match, but in the 11th minute Nacho Alfaro went down on the pitch after taking a headbutt hit to the face from Joaquin Acuna. Acuna earned himself a red card which gave Florida Atlantic an 11-10 man advantage.
Shots were plentiful for the Owls but they would not be able to find the goal until the 33rd minute when Florida Atlantic scored off of a corner attempt with Mamadou Diarra (photo above, Angelina LaBelle) finishing with a beautiful bicycle strike in the center of the goal to give FAU a 1-0 lead.
FAU’s opportunities in the first half were there, but they only managed one goal off of eight shots. Defensively, the Owls only gave up two shots and 3 corners to the Ospreys.
They got a late start, but @FAUMSoccer gets the BICYCLE KICK GOOOOOOOAL from Mamadou Diarra to give #FAU a 1-0 lead at the break! #GoOwls 🦉⚽️ #NCAASoccer pic.twitter.com/AlS5OQThFB
— FAU Owls Nest (@FAU_Owls_Nest) September 14, 2024
The second half started off slowly as Florida Atlantic decided to play a few bench players to give the starters a rest. The 56th minute saw FAU’s Kasper Heerfordt earning a booking with a yellow card. It would not be until the 83rd minute when the next goal was scored, which was Diarra once again scoring as he earned his first official brace of the year.
After taking a hit to the face Alfaro and the Owls defense earned their second clean sheet of the year as Alfaro had two saves. Florida Atlantic finished the match with 16 shots and five shots on goal compared to North Florida’s three shots with two on goal. The Owls had a season high in corner attempts with ten against the Ospreys three.
As of now, if the match between Stetson and FAU were to be played to official time Diarra would be at least fourth in the nation in goals at six, he officially has three.
Florida Atlantic improves to 2-2-1 on the season. The next match for the Owls is a road conference contest against UAB (2-1-2). Today’s match against North Florida was a great test for FAU as North Florida played UAB last week. The Ospreys fell to the Blazers 1-0. UAB is 2-1-2 this season with all of their matches being decided by zero or one goals. The match starts at 8 P.M on Saturday, Sept., 24th at PNC Field.
