On the surface, it might seem like Jacksonville’s 12-11 upset win over then-No. 6 Florida was a fluke. Or maybe it came down to sheer luck. The scoreline was close, and the game’s final 10 minutes were tight and tense.

The Dolphins want you to know that’s not the case.

The stat sheet offers the best evidence, and it’s convincing. Jacksonville dominated the possession battle, owning the ball for more than 40 of the game’s 60 minutes. It won in the circle (19 draws to the Gators’ six), on the ground (ground balls were 35-24) and on net (shots were 31-21), all en route to the first win over a top 10 team in program history.

“I talked about the legacy of our program in the pregame, starting this program from scratch in 2010 and doing it together,” coach Mindy McCord said. “We just have an amazing team culture. We work together to achieve our goals, and therefore no one really feels the individual pressure. That’s what really allowed us to string this great victory together.”

Florida is always an anticipated opponent on the Dolphins’ calendar — they’re two of only three Division I teams in the Sunshine State and have played every season but two since both programs began in 2010. Yet the rivalry had been one-sided, with the Gators winning by at least six goals in each of those nine previous matchups.

Until this year. Jacksonville lost two starters to knee injuries in the week before the game, but it wasn’t ready to let that knock it back permanently. It’d be easy to say, “Oh, we’re calling it a day,” against a big opponent without two key players, McCord said, “but not this team.”

The Dolphins came in with a game plan. The Gators had a defense ranked in the top 20 nationally, and Jacksonville knew it needed to put up a lot of shots and get its midfielders shooting to stay in the fight. The plan worked. Once settled in, the Dolphins broke off for three scoring runs of at least three goals, led by hat tricks from Alyssa Arnold and Sarah Elms.

They saw where in-game adjustments were needed and made them. They gave up six free-position attempts in the first half. After re-grouping at the break and focusing on shutting down the cuts and dodges, they didn’t give up a single one during the second.

“When you’re playing a top team, you know that you can’t have that many turnovers (because) your mistakes count against you much more. We knew we had to get possessions and be smart with them,” McCord said. “And we had just enough time to not give them any more time.”

Even as Florida bit back into the lead late in the game, Jacksonville had taken over the driver’s seat — at one point it led by five goals — and it wasn’t ready to hand over the keys. Six of junior midfielder Molly Brock’s career-high 13 draw controls came in the second half, and she helped the Dolphins win the battle in the circle 10-1 after a 9-5 first frame.

“It’s something we take pride in. Our draw unit has been able to work together multiple times every single week to try to develop this chemistry,” Brock said. “We knew what their tendencies were on the draw, and we knew we were able to anticipate where the ball was going.”

The Dolphins didn’t score for the game’s final 20 minutes, but they did enough to hold onto their lead and thwart Florida’s last-ditch attempts. Gators midfielder Shannon Kavanaugh capped off her hat trick with a goal to make it 12-11 with 22 seconds left, but Brock responded in the circle and won Jacksonville the final draw.

“Our team was really calm during the game, so once we kind of realized what had just happened, it was just pure excitement coming out,” Brock said. “Being able to celebrate that and have that experience with your teammates, it was just amazing. I have no other words to describe that moment.”

What words couldn’t describe, an ultra-high-definition camera was there on the sidelines to catch.

STORM THE FIELD WE JUST BEST #5 FLORIDA

Shot on a Ronin SC + Canon R5 + 50mm pic.twitter.com/j8ZkTVy9AC

— Duncan Boone (@DuncanBoone_1) March 13, 2021

The Dolphins jumped into the Nike/US Lacrosse Magazine Division I Women’s Top 20 for the first time this season after the win. Another ranked team is next up on tap: No. 18 Virginia Tech, an opponent they’ve never played, but a matchup they’re already excited about in a season they hope is just getting underway.

“This team has a different mentality,” McCord said. “We’re humbled to be ranked and humbled for this win, but we want this to be the foundation of our season, not the pinnacle.”