Noone breaks assist record

Senior forward J.T. Noone recorded his 21st assist in the Owls’ only win this weekend versus Albany.

After the men’s soccer team’s promising 2-0-1 start, the Owls entered a rough stretch of games after a 0-0 tie to Lafayette. Temple would not score a single goal during a two-game stint in Norfolk, Va., where it would lose, 2-0, to William and Mary and 4-0 to Old Dominion. The Owls then came home to break their goalless streak with two goals from sophomore Tyler Witmer, but the team still lost their third straight game, 3-2, to Navy.

“Obviously, I thought we played much better at Navy, but we just had a few mental lapses that cost us the game, a game we should have won,” coach David MacWilliams said.

One reason the team struggled was its tendency to drop back in its own end, thus making it difficult to move up the field.

“It wasn’t by design that we were dropping back for whatever reason, things kept kind of collapsing in the back, and we kept having a long way to go,” MacWilliams said. “For whatever reason in Virginia, we were turning the ball over in our own end.”

Another issue has been other teams focusing on senior forward J.T. Noone as they try to limit his ability to create scoring chances. In Virginia, Noone was moved back from the forward spot to help out defensively, which put him farther away from the net. The team still works the ball through him even as he receives extra attention from opponents.

“A lot of teams put a mark on me and have guys follow me around on the field,” Noone said. “You just have to be smart with the way you’re playing and try to take your chances as they come. I’m learning to deal with it, as long as we’re successful, that’s the only thing that matters to me.”

To turn their fortunes around, MacWilliams had the Owls place an emphasis on pressing higher up the field. Then, if they won possession of the ball, they would not have to travel very far to score. This system started during the Navy game on Saturday, and on Sunday, Temple snapped its four-game losing streak with a 2-0 win over Albany up at Ambler.

“This is definitely as momentum builder,” MacWilliams said. “I still think we are as confident as we were last year, and I think that only counts for winning games and keeping the other team off the board.”
“We started believing in each other and realized it was only a couple of games, Noone added. “It is a long season, and we can turn this around.”

Witmer scored the first goal with an assist from Noone in the 37-minute mark, and senior Mike Puppolo had the game-winning goal in the 87-minute mark. Noone’s assist makes him Temple’s all-time leader with 21, and the season isn’t over yet.

“I finally got it out of the way and can now concentrate on the rest of the season,” Noone said. “It’s something I’ve been trying to accomplish for the past couple weeks now. I’m very proud of accomplishing it.”

On Wednesday, the team takes on city-rival Penn at Ambler and then has another home game on Saturday against Hartford.

“We just need to win a few games and get some confidence,” MacWilliams said.

Brian Dzenis can be reached at brian.dzenis@temple.edu.

Duo are go-to guys for goals

After finishing second in the Atlantic Ten Conference last season, midfielders J.T. Noone and Tyler Witmer look to defy sixth-place predictions.

Despite posting the second-best record in the Atlantic Ten Conference last year, senior midfielder J.T. Noone and the men’s soccer team enter the 2009 season facing skepticism from the rest of the league.
In a recent poll of A-10 coaches, the Owls were predicted to finish sixth in the conference, with the Dayton Flyers pegged to repeat as champions.

The Owls return one of the best one-two punches in the conference in the form of Noone and sophomore midfielder Tyler Witmer. The duo accounted for 43 points last year, nearly half of the Owls’ total offense.

“I talked to Tyler and J.T. before the season, and I told them that it’s very important that they repeat what they did last year,” coach Dave MacWilliams said. “Any drop-off from that, and it’s going to hurt us. For us to be successful, those two have to constantly be on the scoresheet.”

Noone, who tied Temple’s all-time assist record in Friday’s game against Villanova, enters the season with an abundance of hype surrounding him. Following a season in which he scored seven goals to go along with 12 assists, Noone was named to the First-Team All A-10 squad, along with earning a selection to the 2008 National Soccer Coaches Association of America Second-Team All-America squad. In July, College Soccer News named Noone to its preseason Second-Team All-American squad.

Repeating that success will not be easy for Noone, as opposing teams are likely to game-plan around him, MacWilliams said.

“J.T. is going to be man-marked, double-teamed,” MacWilliams said. “If they are double-teaming him, it means somebody else is open. It’s something we have to work on and something J.T.’s going to have to expect game after game.”

Noone wasn’t the only Owl to receive accolades last year, as Witmer found himself on both the Second-Team A-10 and First-Team All-Freshman squads following the season. By scoring eight goals, good for fifth in the conference, Witmer provided a consistent scoring threat for Noone to look for.

“He’s a scorer, a natural finisher,” Noone said. “He’s going to score a lot of goals this year, and that’s exactly what we need.”

Senior midfielder Martin Dell’Arciprete and junior midfielders Jared Harris and Max Kinderwater also expect to play crucial roles in the Cherry and White’s offense this year.

In back, senior defender Brant Hovington was expected to return after starting 17 games last year before tearing his anterior cruciate ligament, leaving a huge hole in a defense that was already depleted from the graduation of James Suevo. Freshman defender Billy Kappock stepped up to help fill Hovington’s role, but it’s going to take a group effort, MacWilliams said.

“Billy’s still young. He’s going to learn. He’s going to get better as the year goes on,” MacWilliams said. “We also have Bryan Keller, who can also come in. Both Chas Chupein and Billy have done a pretty good job so far.”

In the net, senior goalkeeper Bret Mollon returns after a successful debut season for the Owls. Mollon, who originally played for Oakland University, started every game last year, finishing with a 10-5-4 record, while posting a Temple season record nine shutouts.

The Cherry and White are used to playing the role of underdogs, as last year was the first year the team made the A-10 tournament since 2004. By returning eight of 11 starters from last year’s squad, the Owls said they feel they have the experience and depth to make another run.

“We’re capable of [competing for a title],” MacWilliams said. “It all comes down to how we mesh. If we can do that, then I’m confident we can compete.”

“We’re returning a lot of guys this year, and a lot of us are still hungry,” Noone added. “We have some unfinished business to take care of. I know I do.”

After starting the season 2-0-1, following a victory over Villanova and a tie with Lafayette, the Owls look to build on that record this weekend in the Stihl Soccer Classic in Norfolk, Va.

Kyle Gauss can be reached at kylegauss@temple.edu.

Dramatic end caps rejuvenating season for men’s soccer

The men’s soccer team’s season came to an end Friday in the Atlantic Ten Conference semifinals.
The Owls lost to the Dayton Flyers, 2-1, in overtime at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. The Cherry and White finished the season with a 10-5-4 overall record and 6-1-2 in A-10 play.

The Owls sent the game into overtime in the 71st minute on a shot by senior defender James Suevo, who connected with the back of the net and tied the game with his third goal of the season. Suevo’s goal was set up by junior forward J.T. Noone, who tallied his 13th assist on the season, increasing his school record.

In the overtime period, the Owls came out with intensity, as junior midfielder Francois Sagna recorded the first and final shot of the period for the Owls.

“We had a great opportunity in overtime to win it,” coach David MacWilliams said. However, the “shot was directly at the keeper. If he hits it left or right, we probably win the game.”

A Dayton corner kick led to an early scoring opportunity, as a header was stopped by the Owls’ goalie. However, later, on the following corner, Dayton’s Zach Weiss would find Florian DeCamps for the game-winning goal and his second of the day.

“I’m happy with the efforts but not happy with the end result,” MacWilliams said. “We wanted to and believed we could make the NCAA Tournament this year. It was a great accomplishment, but we tried to set the bar and standards higher.”

The Owls did this despite missing some starters.

Junior midfielder Matt Chevrollier and sophomore defenseman Brant Hovington were the starters who didn’t play in the contest, as Chevrollier was serving a one-game suspension and Hovington was out with an injury.

“I don’t think we played as well [as we could have],” MacWilliams said. “I think it was tough. We were missing two starters.”

Temple then lost a third player just seven minutes into the game. Sophomore defenseman Chas Chupein went down with a broken leg. Chupein was by the sideline when he was hit from behind.
MacWilliams called the play dirty and believed the play “should have been a red card, but [the referee] only gave a yellow card.”

The Owls, despite missing those aforementioned starters, still had a competitive first half, as they matched the Flyers in shots with eight. However, for Dayton, one of those shots went past Owls goalkeeper Bret Mollon.

“We knew they were a very big team,” MacWilliams said. “We knew we couldn’t give up a lot of restarts or corner kicks. It would be an issue for us.”

On a corner kick in the 24th minute, the Flyers’ Simeon Zapryanov passed toward the net, and DeCamps headed his eighth goal of the season to put Dayton ahead 1-0.

Even though the Cherry and White lost in the playoffs, the team had one of its best seasons in several years.

MacWilliams said he was pleased with how the season went. One of the reasons he believed the team did well this year was because it was able to find the back of the net twice as much as the previous year.

The Owls finished second in the A-10, an accomplishment that had not been done since 1990. To go along with the second-place finish, Temple posted its most wins since 2004, with 10.

“We are motivated for next year,” MacWilliams said. “We want to take it even further than we did this past year.”

Nick Hollenstein can be reached at n.hollenstein@temple.edu.