Tamsin Bynoe had her back against the wall for the entirety of Temple’s game at USF on Thursday. The Owls’ goalkeeper was on the receiving end of a Bulls avalanche, facing 21 shots the entire game and had little breathing room all night.
Bynoe was able to successfully fend off USF for the first 84 minutes, keeping the third-best team in the American Athletic Conference deadlocked. But her heroics were unable to last the entire 90 minutes and Bulls forward Gentiana Fetaj got the best of Bynoe to score the first goal of the game.
Temple fared worse on offense and got off just six shots all game. The Owls recorded just a single shot in the final six minutes of the game and it was swallowed up by USF to send Temple packing for its 26th consecutive American Athletic Conference loss.
Temple (2-13, 0-6 AAC) was defeated by South Florida (9-2-3, 4-1-2 AAC) 1-0 on Thursday night at Corbett Stadium. The shutout marks the third consecutive game where the Owls have failed to find the back of the net.
The Bulls needed all of four minutes to put the pressure on Bynoe. USF forward Serita Thurton had an opportunity but it was easily grabbed for Bynoe’s first save of the game. Three minutes later, a USF corner elicited chaos in front of the net and almost resulted in the opening goal. Bynoe remained unfazed between the posts and was successfully able to make the save and clear the ball.
The save fueled Temple’s first chance of the game, earning back-to-back corner kicks.
Temple defender Phoebe Hollin uncorked a ball that found a group of USF defenders that was effortlessly cleared. The Bulls got right back into the Temple third with ease and forced the Owls’ defense to play tight and aggressive.
USF entered the game third in the AAC in points per game with six and made its presence felt in the first half. The Bulls ended the half with five corners compared to Temple’s two and 12 shots to Temple’s one. The Owls’ defense flipped a switch, forcing the Bulls to take low-percentage shots which made Bynoe’s job easier than it’s been in previous games.
Bynoe played spoiler to another Bulls attempt when USF midfielder Sadie Sider-Echenberg ripped a shot from outside the box toward the upper half of the goal in the 55th minute. Bynoe made a leaping save to keep the game deadlocked at zero.
The Bulls’ attack never slowed down and nearly broke the stalemate in the 63rd minute when Fetaj took a shot from outside the box. Her attempt bounced off the crossbar where the Temple defense took control and cleared the ball.
The tension of the game was palpable in the 83rd minute when Bynoe was shown a yellow card for time-wasting after falling on a ball in the box. USF assistant coach Brock Duckworth also earned himself a yellow card for unsportsmanlike conduct after jawing at the referee.
The tension was present for the remainder of the game and a foul on Temple midfielder Fiona Kilian set up Fetaj for a free kick 20 yards from the goal. From there the USF forward beat Bynoe with a looping shot to give USF the game-winning goal in the 84th minute.
Temple had a last ditch effort to salvage the match into a draw when Fetaj fouled Kilian. The foul gave the Owls a free kick with two minutes left in the game. The ball was defended by the USF squad, leaving Temple unable to find the equalizer as the Bulls stopped the upset attempt.
Temple will look to bounce back when it continues its road trip against UTSA (6-6-3, 1-4-2 AAC) on Oct. 20 at 1 p.m.
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