BATON ROUGE, La.- After being blanked in each of their first two games of the season, the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles broke out in a big way Thursday night against the Southern Jaguars, netting four goals, including a pair from
Ryleigh Acosta in a 4-0 shutout victory for their first win of the 2026 campaign.
Playing on turf for the first time this season, it took the Eagles a while to get settled in in their first trip in program history to the Bayou State. The first shot from either team came in the 16
th minute when Kaitlin Gableman sent one towards the net, but just missed the target. One minute later it looked like FGCU had their first goal of the season, but the play was called offsides as the game remained scoreless 20 minutes in.
The Eagles next chance came in the 23
rd minute when Niobe Louis served a beautiful cross into the box and connected with the head of
Lexie Bennett seven yards out, but the Jaguar keeper was up to the task, making the save to keep FGCU off the board for the time being. The field continued to tilt to the Eagles side as
Sarah Greiner intercepted a long pass at midfield and pushed it to the FGCU attacking third, but a second would-be goal for the Green and Blue was taken away by the offsides flag as they game frustratedly remained scoreless into the 30
th minute.
FGCU finally broke through late in the half as
Ryleigh Acosta took a shot that was saved by the Southern keeper, but she stayed with it, picking up the rebound and burying it in the left pocket of the net to give the Eagles their first goal of the season and a 1-0 lead in the contest.
With the cork popped, the Eagles continued to pressure the Jaguar defense and four minutes later they scored again, this time with Greiner coming up from her defender position to drill a rocket at goal that found the back of the net to double FGCU's lead to 2-0 before the break.
It was all FGCU in the first 45 minutes of action with the Eagles owning all five shots in the game and a 65/35 advantage in possession.
It was more of the same as the second half got underway with
Keira Morgan getting inside the 18 and drawing a foul leading to a penalty shot for FGCU in the 58
th minute. Acosta was the beneficiary of that and slid the ball into the bottom 90 from the spot for her second goal of the game to bump the Eagles lead to 3-0.
The Eagles continued to put pressure on the Jaguar back line, with
Megan Morgan drawing a foul deep in the attacking third to give FGCU a free kick from just outside the box and the Eagles would pick up back to back corners just moments later to keep the ball deep in Southern territory.
The Eagles made it 4-0 in the 85
th minute as
Ava Russell drilled a shot off the crossbar but right into the waiting hands of
Kaitlin Gabelman who tapped it into the back of the Jaguar net to put it on ice for the Green and Blue.
With the game in hand, all that was left was to finish off the clean sheet and that the Eagles did in the closing moments, finishing off their second shutout of the year in a 4-0 victory.
"We are excited to get that first win" FGCU head coach
Jim Blankenship said. "I was proud of how the ladies played tonight and it was good to get a couple of goals in the process. Now we need to look forward and build on this one for the next game."
The Eagles finished with 11 shots including nine on goal in the win while holding Southern without a single attempt at goal in the contest.
Acosta led the Eagles with her first two goals at FGCU while Greiner and Gabelman both took advantage of their only shots on goal on the night for their first tallies as Eagles.
Maya Henley Buisan picked up an assist on Acosta's first goal while Russell notched one of her own on Gabelman's score.
Madara Bome and
Danyelle Dorn combined for the shutout in goal for FGCU, their sixth together the past two seasons.
FGCU picks up their first win of the season to improve to 1-1-1 through three contests while Southern falls to 0-1-0 after dropping their opener. FGCU is now 2-0-0 all-time against the Jaguars.
The Eagles will remain in Baton Rouge over the weekend before changing venues on Sunday when they make the trip crosstown to take on LSU in a 1 p.m. (CT) local start.
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