Following Temple Women’s Soccer’s four-goal loss to Villanova on Aug. 18 in its season opener, head coach Chris Shaw addressed the upperclassmen separately. The new coach instilled a message that the Owls’ season hinged on them as leaders for their performance to improve.
The message seemingly worked, as Temple earned a free kick just under a minute into the match. Defender Phoebe Hollin delivered a shot that just missed the target, almost giving them their first goal in nearly a whole calendar year.
Despite the miss, it marked Temple’s best start to a game and signaled there was a chance to kick-start a dormant Owls attack. But it was all for nothing and it took a nosedive from there on out.
Temple generated just one more shot the remaining 89 minutes of the game, while the defense allowed a jaw-dropping 38 shots, matching the most the Owls have allowed in a game since 2012, when Temple allowed 38 shots against La Salle in a double overtime 0-0 draw. The Owls completely unraveled after halftime, and the floodgates opened as Temple conceded four goals for the second game in a row.
Wake Forest (2-0-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) shut down Temple (0-3, 0-0 American Athletic Conference) 4-0 Thursday night. The loss marks the Owls’ third straight loss to open the season and 11th straight loss dating back to last season.
Temple has shown glimpses of creative passing in the buildup play, yet has flatlined when it comes to getting the ball in the back of the net. The Owls held off the Demon Deacons’ attack for the entirety of the first half, in part to Temple goalkeeper Tamsin Bynoe, who had seven saves on the night.
However, it wasn’t sustainable for the whole game. Wake Forest midfielder Anna Swanson snuck the ball past Bynoe a minute into the second half, and the Demon Deacons didn’t look back.
Temple was completely smothered on the offensive end, unable to find any answers for Wake Forest’s attack. The Owls’ dead-in-the-water offense forced the defense to be tested constantly.
The Owls’ last bit of resistance broke down with 20 minutes remaining in the game. The Owls conceded three goals in seven minutes, effectively draining the last bit of life from an already defeated team.
Following the season-opening loss to Villanova, Shaw stressed that the early stretch is to get the kinks out of a team before conference play begins. The Owls have four more games until their first conference matchup, yet still haven’t shown they have what it takes to finally earn a conference win for the first time since 2021.
“Ultimately, it’s not where we are right now, it’s where we are in conference,” Shaw said. “If we don’t win a game in non-conference and do well in conference it’s been a good year for us. So we’ve still got time and we’re still working on some kinks.”
Temple will stay on the road when they travel to play Iona (0-1-1, 0-0 Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference) on Aug. 29 in New Rochelle, New York, still searching for its first win of the season.
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