Temple got off to a strong start with just one loss in their first four games, and the Delaware Blue Hens began their season in almost identical fashion.
Friday night was a matchup of two teams with similar starts, but different styles of play. The Owls, however, weren’t the ones on top by the end of it.
Delaware shutout No.11 Temple 2-0, handing the Owls their second loss of 2013.
“We were just one step behind,” coach Amanda Janney said. “I think we still played a good game, just had a couple things that didn’t come altogether and we didn’t have a long enough sustained attack.”
“[Delaware] had a great start to their season with some pretty tough games, so they were pretty battle-tested and they were ready,” Janney added. “They were able to find the back of the cage on their opportunities and we weren’t able to take advantage of our opportunities.”
Delaware propelled themselves to a win with a goal in each half.
Sophomore midfielder Michaela Patzner made it 1-0 in the first and senior defender Heather Hartman made it a 2-0 game in the second.
Temple had 10 shots Friday night, sending five of them on goal, but senior goalkeeper Sarah Scher was able to stop all five of them for the Blue Hens.
Delaware generated 19 shots, sending 11 of them the way of redshirt junior goalkeeper and co-captain Lizzy Millen. Millen put up another solid outing, making nine saves, but the Owls couldn’t recover from the two that got by.
Temple beat Ohio State 4-1 in the season opener, but has been outshot in each game since.
Although they haven’t been able to take as many shots as their opponents in the prior games, the Owls were able to take advantage of the scoring chances they did get. They weren’t able to do that on Friday night, though.
“We can’t just live off those stats where we expect that we are going to take four shots a game and score three every single game for the rest of the season,” Janney said. “For us, it was a good lesson learned. We need to get more shots and have a more sustained attack. The team played well, we just couldn’t find the back of the net when we needed to.”
The Owls will have to regroup and get back at it quickly, as they return home for a Saturday afternoon contest against Monmouth at 2 pm.
The quick turnaround, however, is a good thing, according to Janney.
“For me it’s a great thing about sports that you get to play another game right away,” Janney said. “Today was not our best showing. We waited until the last minute to start to play hard and push.”
“Our team did a really good job to take over the game by the end,” Janney added. “But by then it was too late. We learned and tomorrow we need to come out right away.”
Nick Tricome can be reached at tue55707@temple.edu or on Twitter @itssnick215.
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