In their worst offensive production of the season, the Temple Owls lost to the Hofstra Pride in a low scoring affair, 8-5, on Thursday evening.
“They put more defensive pressure on us than we’ve seen in the past few games,” coach Bonnie Rosen said. “We didn’t handle it very well”.
After playing its fourth straight road game, Temple (5-3) has now dropped three of those four games, and the loss to Hofstra (6-3) is the Owls’ second consecutive defeat.
“We’re struggling a little bit to find our collective offense,” Rosen said. “Individually, they’re all very nice players, but we’re struggling a bit to be cohesive.”
Freshman attacker Rachel Schwaab led the Owls with two goals. Junior midfielder Kelly Syphard and senior midfielders Charlotte Swavola and Stephany Parcell all added a goal each.
After allowing six first half goals, senior goalie Meghan Clothier allowed two goal in the second half and finished the game with seven total saves.
For the Pride, hat tricks were netted by attackers junior Julia Riemer and freshman Becky Conto. Sophomore attacker Brittain Altomare and senior midfielder Jill Maier bother added a goal to the Hofstra point total.
Sophomore goalkeeper Kelsey Gregerson recorded nine saves, allowed five goals, and received her sixth win of the season.
Riemer scored the game’s first goal in less than a minute of play. In the first 12 minutes of the first period, Swavola answered Riemer’s goal and minutes later, Schwaab responded to a Conto goal, which tied the game 2-2.
Riemer then scored her second goal of the day to break the tie and begin an unanswered Hofstra run. Holding the Owls to five shot attempts in the first period, Hofstra made the most of their possessions and scored four consecutive goals, going into halftime.
In the first half, season leading scorers Stephany Parcell and Jaymie Tabor were held to zero shot attempts.
“Jaymie Tabor and Steph Parcell, they both started, they did not do a very good job of getting the ball in their hands. The rest of the offense focused on that instead of figure out how to score,” Rosen said.
In the second half, after more than ten minutes of scoreless play, Altomare scored a goal for Hofstra to push their run and lead to five goals, with the score 7-2.
With 13:40 on the clock, Temple began getting freed up for shot attempts and scored three unanswered goals by Parcell, Syphard, and Schwaab. From the first period to the second, the Owls more than tripled their shot attempts, but due to several off target shots and another Hofstra goal, the Owls’ could not complete the comeback.
“It was frustrating to only put up five points. We should be better than that, we are better than that, and we have the ability to be better than that,” Rosen said.
Thursday’s loss marked season-lows in draw controls, shot percentage and a season-high in turnovers for Temple.
“We have to get better. It’s not really the two losses in a row, it’s just the things that need to get better. There are very specific things that need to get better in terms of our skills, and game-wise, we have to show up a bit better,” Rosen said.
Brien Edwards can be reached at brien.edwards@temple.edu or on twitter @BErick1123.
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