Heading into halftime, it looked like the Owls’ Big East Conference opener was going to fall flat Friday night.
No. 14 Temple was in a three-goal hole against Providence College after one half. It wasn’t the situation the Owls wanted to be in.
A comeback, though, would soon follow as the Owls netted four unanswered goals overtime to complete it.
Following a first half that saw a goal from the Friars’ senior forward/midfielder Steph Gugliemo, and two from senior forward Daniella Bernasconi, Temple began its climb back after coach Amanda Janney called a timeout at the 51-minute, 45-second mark.
“We had faith that we could do it,” Janney said. “Getting on the board first, then getting the momentum. We talked about being more aggressive in the second half, picking up the tempo and not wasting anytime.”
“We took the timeout when we did because we wasted the first ten minutes of the half,” Janney added. “And we weren’t playing as up-tempo as we wanted.”
But that changed coming out of the huddle, when senior forward Amber Youtz scored off a straight shot on the penalty corner to get the Owls on the board a couple minutes later.
“When we scored our first goal, that just gave us the drive,” freshman midfielder/forward Maiyah Brown said. “We knew that we had enough time. We knew we had the skill, and to keep putting in goals within the time period that we had, we knew it was possible.”
Sophomore forward Katie Foran flipped a loose ball by senior goalkeeper Deidra Clymer in the 59th minute to cut Providence’s lead to one, then junior midfielder Sarah Deck tied it in the 64th minute with a direct shot on a penalty corner.
Youtz, 6:43 into the overtime period, sent a one-time pass over to an open Brown by the left post, who then put the ball in the back of the cage to end it.
“It was a very exciting feeling,” Brown said. “Just to get it done early, it comes down to teamwork. And without the pass from Amber, it wouldn’t have happened.”
“It was all motivation, teamwork and a lot of leadership from our upperclassmen,” Brown added. “Every goal, we didn’t give up. Our captains pulled us in and just said, ‘We got this,’ and we came back in the second half and proved who was the better team.”
Temple (8-3, 1-0 Big East) will return home on Sunday at noon to wrap up the weekend against a non-conference opponent in No. 9 Penn State (9-2, 2-1 Big Ten Conference). The Owls upset the Nittany Lions 3-0 on the road last season, when Penn State was ranked No. 6 in the nation at the time.
Penn State, however, is 30-2-1 all-time against Temple.
Nick Tricome can be reached at nick.tricome@temple.edu or on Twitter @itssnick215.
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