Temple Field Hockey entered Friday afternoon’s game against Penn in desperate need of positive momentum. The Owls got rolled by Virginia on Sept. 6, which was followed up by an overtime heartbreaker to Richmond last weekend. The losses snapped the momentum they had built in the first two games and sent the team into a similar spiral they suffered last season.
The trend seemed to continue for the first 45 minutes of the game, with the Quakers holding onto to a 2-0 lead as the third quarter drew to a close. Temple put continuous pressure on the Penn defense but to no avail.
The Owls finally broke through just 90 seconds into the fourth quarter when midfielder Devin Kinzel put home her third goal of the season to give Temple a lifeline. The Owls’ pulse was beating for all of three minutes before Penn responded to put the nail in the coffin.
Temple (2-3, 0-0 Big East Conference) fell to Penn (1-2, 0-0 Ivy League) 3-1 at Ellen Vagelos Field. After starting the season with 13 goals in two games, the Owls offense has become dormant, scoring just three goals in the last three games.
“Realistically, we were the better team today, statistically and tactically what we were able to create,” said head coach Michelle Vittese. “We just have to review, refine, trust our players to get it.”
Both sides spent the first quarter unable to gain an edge on the other. Temple midfielder Peyton Rieger had the opportunity to get Temple on the board first but Penn goalkeeper Ruby De Frees had other plans, making the save.
Penn’s first shot on goal of the game wasn’t until the final minute of the first quarter, but the Quakers made it count. Midfielder Julia Ryan sauced a pass to defender Philine Klas who found the back of the net to open the scoring.
Goalkeeper Isabella Ospitale made her first career start for the Owls after Alex Lepore started in the first four games of the season. Ospitale had relieved Lepore of her duties in three of the games but drew the start today and held her own. She made four saves and helped keep Temple within arm’s reach.
“We didn’t face that many [shots], I think that’s the hard part,” Vittese said. “The majority of the game we were attacking, we were maybe a bit loose in defending.”
As halftime approached, the Owls were still stuck in the mud offensively. In the final three minutes of the half, Temple turned up the heat on De Frees. The Owls earned two penalty corners and fired off five shots in the span of a minute. However, the shots did not translate into points and Temple went into the locker room down 1-0.
The Owls carried the offensive momentum into the second half, immediately applying pressure to the Penn defense. Temple had two more penalty corners and four more shots in the first two minutes of the second half. Just like the first half, the Penn defense stood strong and kept Temple off the board.
“It starts in practice,” Kinzel said. “As we were debriefing, we talked about the things that need fixing and doing them quickly as our conference games start up.”
The Owls continued to stifle Penn’s attack until the final moments of the third quarter. Forward Bridget Skelly found an opening and slotted a shot past Ospitale to double the Quaker’s lead.
After Kinzel’s goal to open the fourth quarter, Skelly beat Ospitale for the second time to give Penn a two-goal lead once again. The Owls had the chance to crawl back into the game with three penalty corners but Penn’s defense was impenetrable with De Frees leading the way. She made five saves in the game and eliminated offensive pressure multiple times before Temple could take a shot.
Despite racking up 14 shots and seven penalty corners, both more than Penn, the Owls only managed to turn one of those opportunities into a single goal. Temple has now only scored three goals in the last 12 quarters of play as they head into Big East play in desperate need of an offensive revival.
“Overcoming the flow as of not putting them in the net, [the opponent] getting in our circle a few times and having that be the deciding factor,” Kinzel said. “Just turning that around and changing that in practice, it starts there. We won’t have a hard time fixing it up, everyone needs to be on the same page.”
Temple begins its conference schedule as they travel to play UConn (5-0, 0-0 Big East Conference) on Sept. 20 at 1 p.m.
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