North Florida Beats Lipscomb 1-0 on Romano's Late Winner to Finish the Regular Season as the ASUN's Top Seed
Mark Romano scored in the 76th minute and Luciano Natoli kept his sixth shutout as North Florida won 1-0 at Lipscomb on Saturday night, closing the regular season 11-4-3 and unbeaten in the ASUN at 7-0-1.
North Florida finished the job on the road. Senior midfielder Mark Romano netted the game-winning goal in the 76th minute to give the Ospreys a 1-0 win over Lipscomb at Lipscomb Soccer Complex on Saturday night, the University of North Florida's official athletics site reported.
With the win, North Florida concludes the regular season 11-4-3 overall and 7-0-1 in ASUN Conference play. The 22 conference points are the most in program history and the most by a conference member since 2010, and the seven ASUN wins are also a program record. Romano's goal — assisted by Kaiss Mansouri, his team-high fourth assist of the season — was Romano's fourth game-winner of the year, all in conference play, and he leads the team with seven goals.
Fifth-year goalkeeper Luciano Natoli made two saves in 90 minutes for his sixth shutout of the season and fourth in conference action. North Florida finished with an 8-2 margin in shots on goal and a 7-1 edge in corner kicks, after leading 7-0 in corners and 5-0 in shots on goal at halftime.
The Ospreys will be the No. 1 seed and host the 2026 ASUN Championship at Hodges Stadium from November 7-14. With the top seed comes a bye to the semifinals, where North Florida awaits the winner of Stetson and Bellarmine on Monday, November 9, at 7 p.m. ET.
