Temple University’s captains led the way to help the Owls clinch their first victory of the 2018 season Friday night against Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.
Lafayette (0-4) outshot Temple (1-4) 18-10, but thanks eight total saves by the Owls, Temple was able to come away with the 3-2 win.
“Of course any win feels fantastic, but the way that we won feels even better,” Coach Marybeth Freeman said. “It was a team effort”.
Senior goalkeeper Chloe Johnson recorded six saves, bringing her season total to 47. Junior midfielder Kathryn Edgar kept the Owls ahead in the final minute with a defensive stop on a penalty corner shot from Lafayette’s sophomore back and midfielder Audrey Sawers. Junior back Becky Gerhart made the Owls other defensive stop 18 minutes into the game.
Edgar also tallied two second half assists to help secure the win for Temple. Redshirt senior midfielder, and captain, Maris Stern, scored the winning goal with eight minutes left in the game.
Sophomore forward Mia Sexton scored the first goal of the game, as she did against the University of California, Davis. Sexton now leads the team in both goals and points.
The Owls nearly came out of the first half with a lead. However, the Leopards were awarded a penalty corner with no time left, subsequently leading to a Lafayette goal.
“Though it’s not what we wanted to happen, I think that the players did a good job of moving on and not dwelling on what happened,” Freeman said.
The Leopards took the lead two minutes into the second-half with a penalty stroke goal by sophomore midfielder Anna Steps.
“I’m not happy that the stroke happened, of course,” Freeman said. “But I’m happy in the sense that Lafayette had to earn the right for the stroke. It wasn’t a ‘gimme’ goal, we really challenged them.”
The Owls will return home to Howarth Field to play Kent State on Sunday at 1 pm.
“We want to remember how good this win feels from a whole team perspective,” Freeman. “If we are able to play [against Kent] the way we played today, for 70 minutes; the grit that we exhibited, the intelligence that we played with, and the fortitude to get the job done, we should have a really positive result.”
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