Under the Jacksonville skies, in the middle of a Saturday afternoon, something strange was floating down onto 22 half-frozen soccer players.
Florida’s magic weather word had arrived: S-N-O-W.
But Jade Pennock, most experienced of all Sporting Club Jacksonville players, wasn’t caught off guard.
“It’s a long time ago now [her last experience with snow in soccer], and it was heavier snow than [tonight],” she said.
This was the day snow came to Jacksonville soccer, and Pennock made it a winner.
The snow wasn’t heavy and it didn’t last long, but snowflakes in the Sunshine State made history of their own during Sporting Jax’s 1-0 win against Carolina Ascent FC in Gainbridge Super League women’s soccer on Jan. 31.
This day wasn’t all about the snow. Veteran forward Pennock poked home a game-winning goal in the 85th minute to cap Jacksonville soccer’s first snow day, and extend the stay for Sporting (8-3-4) atop the nine-team league.
Soccer, snow and Florida. Yes, they really can mix.
“I felt like I was back home in Delaware with the weather tonight,” said forward Paige Kenton, whose header set up Pennock’s winner.
SNOW DAY FOR SPORTING
Some 10 minutes before the 5 p.m. kickoff, Stacey Balaam started to hear the shouts reverberate through the crowd at the University of North Florida’s Hodges Stadium: “It’s snowing!”
“I couldn’t believe it when it actually started snow flurries on us,” the Sporting Jax head coach said. “I heard the crowd behind. All the kids were getting really excited about the snow. Obviously they don’t see that much snow in Florida.”
There they were, sporadic flurries fluttering in a brisk wind that occasionally gusted to near gale force. In addition to UNF, Jacksonville International Airport reported snow at nearly the same time.
But the flurries largely died down by the 10-minute mark and the wind took over, breaking up the passing flow, driving the wind chill downward to 23 degrees and forcing staff to remove the teams’ sideline canopies to keep them from taking flight. Gusts even threatened to blow the artificial turf skyward under the benches, so stadium workers weighed the surface down with Pepsi cartons.
The stadium’s official game-day start temperature of 40 nearly surpassed the Jaguars (38 degrees vs. Washington, Dec. 26, 2010) for the coldest recorded outdoor start in a professional team ball sport in Jacksonville history. Although not all records are complete, it’s believed to be the city’s coldest outdoor pro soccer match ever.
MAGIC MOMENT FOR PENNOCK
Weather looked likely to take center stage, because the chilled players created few scoring chances. Jacksonville’s Ashlyn Puerta just missed with two first-half shots, keeper Kaitlyn Parks denied Carolina (5-5-5) on a pair of opportunities before halftime and Baylee DeSmit curved a second-half shot that Ascent keeper Meagan McClelland denied.
Appropriately enough, the goal belonged to veteran forward Pennock, who’s no stranger to cold weather from more than a half-dozen professional seasons in her native England. Five minutes from full time, substitute midfielder Jessie Hunt took a pass from Grace Phillpotts on the left, eluded a Carolina defender and delivered a cross into the penalty area.
“She just served it up on a platter for me,” said Kenton, who said she initially couldn’t see the cross because of traffic.
Kenton’s header went straight down for Pennock, who had only entered five minutes earlier in place of DeSmit. The forward who scored the club’s first competitive goal of 2025 now owns their first of 2026.
A first Sporting match for newly-signed midfielder Kacey Smekrud and for center back Maggie Illig. Another day in first place. A first-class way to ring in 2026. In the snow. Well, a little snow.
“It was obviously an amazing effort from the players to do what they did and stay defensively sound,” Balaam said.
(This story has been updated to add new information.)
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville soccer snow day a winner for Sporting Jax women
Reporting by Clayton Freeman, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
