Sporting Jax's inaugural match in the Gainbridge Super League was postponed four times before it kicked off shortly before 10 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on August 24, 2025 at 2:30 pm
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Jade Pennock will be the answer to a trivia question.
The 32-year-old forward scored the first goal in Sporting Jax history on Saturday night. The first-year club’s first shot went into the top corner in the 11th minute to excite the Jaxsons who had waited for hours, for days, for years for women’s professional soccer to arrive in the River City.
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“It’s a historic moment for the club,” Pennock said after the match. “It’s massive for me to score that. I’m obviously really happy. But, for us as a group, we’re just disappointed with the result. I think we dominated in spells, so we expected to get more from the game.”
The euphoria did not last. DC Power spoiled Sporting Jax’s inaugural match in the Gainbridge Super League with its 3-1 win.
All three DC Power goals – from Gianna Gourley in the 38th and 68th minute, as well as Jaydah Bedoya’s 75th minute goal – came via Sporting Jax mistakes.
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“We overcomplicated a simple game at times, a little bit naïve,” Sporting Jax head Coach Stacey Balaam said afterward. “The other team, hanging on and, credit to them, they kept at it. They were very efficient at what they did. They scored the equalizer right before the half, which then changed the game.”
Kickoff was delayed four times because torrential rain and thunderstorms. After five years of anticipation, a few additional delays were not going to dampen the anticipation for 9,783 ticket holders.
In the hours before kickoff a small armada of people rolled royal blue squeegees along the pitch to remove the inches that cascaded upon it.
Sporting Jax President Steve Livingstone says it’s been an eight-year odyssey to bring women’s professional soccer to Jacksonville. He could not have imagined using his bare feet to remove water from the field, but he was committed to do anything he could to ensure the team the field.
“With the weather and everything that we went through, it was challenging,” Livingstone says. “Even though the result didn’t go our way, it was great to get a match played and reach the next milestone in the development of the club.”
At 9:15 p.m., more than two hours after the initially scheduled kickoff, the two head coaches stood at midfield as crews continued to to dry the pitch. Five minutes later, Balaam produced a thumbs up to indicate game on.
Their effort paid off when Sporting Jax goalkeeper Kaitlyn Parks kicked off the match at 9:58 p.m. She arrowed the first touch long and to her left to help Sporting Jax unleash its press.
Sporting Jax operated in a 3-5-2 system. At times all 10 outfield players were in the DC Power half, closing down passing lanes and haranguing the visitors before they could pick a pass. Sporting Jax dominated possession, and created multiple opportunities, in the first half hour. But they could not sustain the momentum for the full 90 minutes.
Seven women in the starting XI made their professional debut on the soggy night at Hodges Stadium. Parks; defenders Georgia Brown, Grace Phillpotts; wingback Meg Hughes; midfielders Sophia Boman and Ashlyn Puerta and forward Paige Kenton. Flagler College alumna Andrea Fernandez also made her professional debut on the night, when she replaced Pennock in the 65th minute.
“We keep telling them, whatever the outcome was today, it doesn’t define us,” Balaam says. “But, it certainly gives us something to look at in terms of what we need to improve upon for next week.”
