Temple drops conference opener

Owls lose to Louisville 3-0 in their first game in The American.

The Owls suffered a tough loss against Louisville 3-0 on Saturday night at Cardinal Park.

Temple is now 1-3 on the road this season, conceding a total of six goals in four away fixtures.

Temple finally got to play their first ever game in the American Athletic Conference, but it turned out to be too much for the team to handle. The Owls were dominated in every single statistical category, except for saves made, and as a result were forced to concede their first conference loss of the season. Louisville outshot the Owls 17-11, but what really stood out was the number of shots on target they were able to produce against the Owls: the Cardinals had a total of 10 shots on target as opposed to Temple’s three.

Louisville was able to pile on the pressure on the defense and the goal keeper throughout the game and it prevailed in the end to secure the victory.

“I thought we played a very good team,” coach David MacWilliams said. “We had some chances, but we didn’t capitalize on them and paid the price. I talked to the [Louisville] coach after the game and he thought they played their best of the season.”

One statistic that was going for the Owls was the number of saves junior goalkeeper Dan Scheck was able to make producing a total of seven. But, it wasn’t enough for the Owls as they let in three goals, two of them in the second half. Although the defense let in three goals, MacWilliams refuses to put all the blame on one position.

“It wasn’t all Dan’s fault,” MacWilliams said. “Dan saved the first and an unfortunate rebound came to one of their free [unmarked] guys and scored a goal. The second was a break away and that was a turning point. We should have finished when we had the chance and within 15 seconds they scored their second goal afterwards.”

The Owls are now 6-3-0 this season and will be facing another tough opponent in their next game against Top 25-ranked UConn on Wednesday at 3 p.m. at Ambler.

Hoon Jin can be reached at hoon.jin@temple.edu.

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