Nineteen-year-old midfielder Ashlyn Puerta made Gainbridge Super League history on Friday night, scoring four goals to lead Sporting JAX to a commanding 4-1 victory over Fort Lauderdale United FC at Hodges Stadium. The offensive masterclass set a new league record for the most goals scored by a single player in a match.<\/p>\n
Overcoming an Early Deficit<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s match began with an early setback for the hosts when Fort Lauderdale struck in the eighth minute to take a 1-0 lead. However, the deficit was short-lived.<\/p>\n
In the 23rd minute, Sporting JAX forward Paige Kenton drew a foul inside the penalty area. Puerta stepped up to the spot and buried the penalty kick, leveling the match at 1-1 heading into halftime.<\/p>\n
The Record-Breaking Performance<\/p>\n
Less than 15 minutes into the second half, Sporting JAX took the lead for good. Team captain Sophie Jones threaded a pass to Meg Hughes, who delivered a well-placed cross that Puerta finished for her second goal of the night.<\/p>\n
Sporting JAX Head Coach Stacey Balaam credited her squad\u2019s relentless attacking pressure. \u201cThat\u2019s the key: it\u2019s just persevering, being persistent, keep creating the opportunities and trust your technical ability,\u201d Balaam said. \u201cWe just needed the timing to be right, the connection to be right and once that second goal went in, I think we could take a deep breath and we could relax a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Puerta secured her hat trick in the 74th minute through sheer individual effort. Showcasing her defensive awareness, she forced a turnover, navigated through traffic, and fired a shot between a defender\u2019s legs to extend the cushion to 3-1.<\/p>\n
History was officially rewritten in the 84th minute. Forward Andrea Fernandez, who entered the match as a second-half substitute, provided the assist that allowed Puerta to net her fourth goal of the evening as Hodges Stadium erupted.<\/p>\n
Despite setting a new league benchmark, Puerta immediately credited the collective squad. \u201cIt was a great overall team performance by us,\u201d she said. \u201cOffensively and defensively, we were just all over it tonight. We\u2019ve just been waiting for this day and waiting for the connection to come back and it did today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Balaam echoed the praise for her young midfielder. \u201cFor Ash to score four goals, big night for her tonight. She\u2019s capable of it, but for her, [it\u2019s] really special and it really lifts the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Building Momentum<\/p>\n
The decisive victory provides a crucial boost for Sporting JAX as they navigate the second half of the season. Defender Georgia Brown, who recently returned from international duty with the Scotland Women\u2019s National Team, noted the importance of the result.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was great to come back from such a long period off for both me and the team, and then to get a result like that, I think it really brings us momentum going into the second half of the season,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI think it gives the girls a lot of confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fort Lauderdale United return to action Thursday October 22 at Amerant Bank Field against Carolina Ascent. Kickoff is at 7:30. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nineteen-year-old midfielder Ashlyn Puerta made Gainbridge Super League history on Friday night, scoring four goals to lead Sporting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-430468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}