Senior forward Bridget Settles gives the Owls an edge with penalty stroke.
The field hockey team defeated Big Five rival La Salle 2-1 in overtime as the Owls looked to finish off their three-game home stand in strong fashion when they took on the Explorers Sunday afternoon.
Within the first five minutes of the game, the Owls came close to scoring on two offensive opportunities. The first came when freshman forward Amber Youtz hit the post and seconds later junior forward Katie Briglia took a shot that went just wide of the cage.
La Salle made the most of the little scoring opportunities they had all afternoon. Twelve minutes deep into the first half Explorers’ senior forward Lindsay Fry scored when she received a pass off a penalty corner from teammate junior midfielder Becca Chylack giving the Explorers the early one goal advantage.
The Owls continued to battle offensively in the first half outshooting La Salle 13-2. However they were not rewarded for their efforts as they faced the same deficit going into halftime.
“I just told our team to relax and continue to attack,” coach Amanda Janney said. “We were getting great opportunities, we just had a hard time converting on them.”
Temple’s defense continued to shut down La Salle in the second half, giving the offense more opportunities.
“We really tried to be aggressive on defense and not let them get the ball in deep,” senior defenseman Carissa Young said. “We knew how skilled they were offensively so we had to keep them off the attack.”
Three minutes into the second half, Temple dodged a two-goal deficit when a La Salle goal was overturned. Explorers’ senior midfielder Becca Freed ripped a shot outside the offensive circle that went into the net. Originally it was ruled a goal because it was thought to be deflected by a player in the offensive circle. After the umpires got together to discuss it, the ruling was overturned.
With less than 20 minutes left in the game Youtz evened the score when she took a shot from the top of the offensive circle.
“We did such a good job offensively all day. We finally were able to get something going on that shot which helped us get back in the game,” Youtz said.
The Owls continued to pound away at La Salle for the last 20 minutes, holding the Explorers to only one shot on goal for the entire second half. However they couldn’t break the tie in regulation so the game went into overtime.
Overtime didn’t last long, as senior forward Bridget Settles took a penalty stroke less than three minutes into the extra session of play to end the game. As the Owls’ leading scorer with 32 points on the season, Settles didn’t disappoint as she blew a shot right by La Salle’s redshirt-freshman goaltender Lisa Shaffer.
“I received a great pass and was able to beat the goalie and earn the penalty stroke,” Settles said. “On the stroke I just ripped it to the right and it worked out for us to get the win.”
Temple’s overall record is 6-10. This win propels the Owls to 3-0 in Atlantic Ten Conference play. The Owls snapped La Salle’s three game winning streak and won two of three games on their home stand. La Salle drops to 6-8 overall and 1-1 in conference play.
The Owls continue A-10 play as they travel to Saint Louis on Friday.
Kieran McCauley can be reached at Kieran.McCauley@temple.edu.
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