The USF men’s soccer team rocked in front of a rowdy road crowd in Fort Myers on Tuesday night.
The No. 14 Bulls rolled to a 2-0 win over Florida Gulf Coast University, which broke a school attendance record with 1,556 fans filling the stands.
The numbers and the noise pleased USF head coach George Kiefer, whose Bulls haven’t lost on the road in four games this season.
“That was great to put the guys in that environment. All their students came marching in before the game,” he said. “It was a fun place to play a game.”
USF (6-2-2) started to quiet things down in the 41st minute when Stiven Salinas beat a defender towards the net and got taken down hard. That set up a penalty kick for Leston Paul, who beat the keeper for his third goal of the season.
The Bulls padded their lead in the second half when Dom Dwyer, the team’s most dangerous goal scorer, found himself alone in front of the keeper in the 62nd minute and “buried it,” according to Kiefer. Dwyer already has eight goals in his debut season as a Bull.
That was more than enough for USF keeper Chris Blais, who made a key save in the first half and didn’t have to do much after the break. FGCU (4-3-2) had seven shots in the first half and only three in the second.
“We really clamped the game down in the second half. I think we took everything away from them and created good chances for ourselves,” Kiefer said. “I was really pleased with the discipline being up.”
USF heads back into Big East play Saturday night for what should be a battle. The Bulls will host No. 8 St. John’s at Corbett Soccer Stadium with a chance to go 2-0-1 in the conference.