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Denied in debut: Sporting Jax scores early, fades late in city's pro women's soccer opener
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- Denied in debut: Sporting Jax scores early, fades late in city's pro women's soccer opener
(This story has been updated to add new information and to add a photo or video.)
It was Jade Pennock's first shot for Sporting Club Jacksonville , and it felt perfect. It was.
"When the ball was sitting up in the air as I was going into the box, all I'm thinking is I just want to get it on frame," she said.
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Saturday brought Jacksonville's first professional women's soccer club game, and its first goal. The first win will have to wait.
Pennock needed only seven minutes for a rocket goal to open Sporting Jax's women's soccer odyssey, but DC Power FC's Gianna Gourley got the upper hand with a slower one — a sand-wedge chip for a game-winner — to deny the First Coast's newest professional sports franchise 3-1 in its storm-delayed Aug. 23 Gainbridge Super League debut.
Sporting Club Jacksonville forward Jade Pennock (7) scores the first goal in the women's soccer club's history against DC Power FC on Aug. 23. The teams meet again Saturday.
Sporting Jax commanded the first-half possession and scoring chances but not the numbers on the scoreboard, and that proved costly. A defensive-minded DC Power (1-0-0) infrequently ventured forward, but when they did, Gourley finished ruthlessly, capping her night with a 25-yard go-ahead chip off a Sporting turnover in the 70th minute.
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A hard lesson for a young team: When the shots after the seventh minute end up everywhere except inside the net, overwhelming edges in possession (62 percent) and corner kicks (6 to 0) won't be enough.
"I think we relaxed a little bit too much, and then we followed up by missing a few chances that we ended up paying for in the end," Sporting Jax coach Stacey Balaam said.
Jade Pennock's goal: Memorable opener
After three years of developing its United Soccer League franchise, and more than three hours waiting out a Florida August rainstorm, Sporting Jax recorded its long-awaited first kick at 9:59 p.m., when Kaitlyn Parks ventured forward from goalkeeper to boot the opening kickoff.
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The clock read nearly seven minutes when midfielder Meg Hughes aimed a pass into the penalty area for the right foot of Pennock, the club's oldest player at 32 with more than a half-dozen professional seasons in England and Australia. Ball struck crossbar, then back of net.
Then came Pennock whirling around in celebration with her Sporting Jax teammates, and the "Let's go, Sporting, let's go!" chants of the rain-drenched fans still inside the University of North Florida's Hodges Stadium amid the Jacksonville jubilation.
But that wasn't the only chapter of the story.
Sporting's high defensive line and tenacious midfield pressure pinned the visitors deep for the first half: Caroline Murray and Hughes raided the DC end from the wings and former Florida State midfielder Ashlyn Puerta pulled the strings from the center, nearly netting a goal-of-the-season candidate with a bending 30-yarder that curled just high. Yet all that pressure wasn't enough.
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DC Power tied the game 30 minutes after Pennock's opener when Gourley put away a rebound. Murray exited at halftime following an apparent ankle injury, costing Sporting one of its top performers, and the Power pounced midway through the half. A one-two punch consisting of Gourley's chip and a Jaydah Bedoya counterattack goal in the 75th minute brought an unhappy ending for the home crowd.
For an extremely young Sporting Jax lineup — six of the starting 11 were making their pro debut — there's still plenty to learn, and 27 more games in the Super League season to learn it.
"We knew at times our youth was going to show and our inexperience was going to show," Balaam said. "I think it did tonight."
Sporting Club Jacksonville forward Jade Pennock (7, center) celebrates with midfielders Sophie Jones (8) and Sophia Boman (3) after scoring the first goal in the women's soccer club's history against DC Power FC on Aug. 23, 2025. [Clayton Freeman/Florida Times-Union]
Quick free kicks
Sporting Jax's first-ever lineup was goalkeeper Kaitlyn Parks; defenders Julia Lester, Georgia Brown and Grace Phillpotts; midfielders Caroline Murray, Sophia Boman, Ashlyn Puerta, Sophie Jones and Meg Hughes; and forwards Paige Kenton and Jade Pennock. … Former Sandalwood High School defender Madison Murnin played as a second-half substitute for the Power. … Before the starting eleven came the starting seventeen, a 17-strong crew of stadium and club staff armed with squeegees and blowers to clear the soggy remnants of a late-afternoon deluge that pushed back kickoff. … The club announced a sellout of the 9,400-ticket allocation shortly below 1 p.m., although only a fraction of those fans remained through more than three hours of rain.
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Sporting Jax's next game
Sporting Jax next travels down the Sunshine State to the Tampa Bay Sun, an 8 p.m. kickoff on Aug. 30.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Sporting Jacksonville: Women's soccer debut vs. DC Power
