The Temple men’s soccer team suffered its sixth straight loss as they dropped a heartbreaker to Atlantic 10 rival George Washington 3-0 Saturday at South Riding Field.
In a contest that was much closer than the final scoreboard indicated, the Owls withstood a first-half barrage of 19 Colonial shots and entered the second half entrenched in a scoreless battle. Behind a solid goaltending performance by junior Drew Moser, the Owls held the Colonials scoreless through the first 77 minutes of play.
Unlike the first half, in which GW unloaded offensively, Temple controlled the play in the second half and appeared poised to snap their five-game losing streak. Late-game penalties and missed second half scoring chances, however, cost the Owls as the Colonials registered three goals in the last 13 minutes of the contest en route to a 3-0 victory.
“We controlled most of the second half and had two or three good chances to score, but we didn’t put the ball in the net,” Temple head coach David MacWilliams said. “It was an unfortunate loss because I thought that by the way we played, that we deserved a better result.”
The Colonials tallied their first goal on a penalty kick after GW junior Matt Pilkington was fouled by a Temple defender in the penalty area in the 78th minute of play. Sophomore Matt Osborne successfully converted the penalty kick to give GW the late 1-0 lead.
GW notched its second goal of the game six minutes later when a second Temple foul in the penalty box led to another successful Osborne penalty kick conversion. For Osborne, it was his seventh goal of the season and the second straight game in which he scored two penalty-kick goals.
The Colonials locked up the victory two minutes later when junior Jason Holloway scored off of a cross pass from freshman Justin Evans to give GW a three-goal cushion. The goal, which came in the 86th minute of play, was Holloway’s second goal of the season. Evans and senior Jeff Greenspan were credited with assists on the goal.
The Owls’ inability to score has hurt them in the early part of the season. Over its first seven games, Temple has scored only six goals, three of which came off of the foot of freshman Andrew McMenamin in the first game of the season against Drexel.
MacWilliams believes that his team’s inability to score may be a result of hesitant play.
“I think this is what happens when a team is struggling,” MacWilliams said. “I think we’re not as relaxed right now as we should be.
“We’re playing not to lose instead of playing to win.”
One positive for the Owls was the play of Moser.
In his first start of the season at goalie for Temple, Moser turned in an all-around sound performance. Not only did he turn aside the Colonials’ first 23 shots and hold them scoreless through the first 77 minutes of play, but Moser also provided his team with a strong chance to win.
“I thought Drew did a real nice job,” MacWilliams said. “He made the saves when we needed him to and kept us in the game. We’ve been looking for someone at that position to step up and take control and I think Drew did that in this game.”
Moser ended the game with 10 saves for the Owls on 26 shots, while GW junior netminder Nick Parypinski recorded his third shutout of the season with one save on five shots.
With the loss, the Owls’ record fell to 1-6-0 overall on the season and 0-2 in Atlantic 10 competition, while the Colonials improved their record to 4-2-2 overall and 1-0 in the A-10 with the victory.
Prior to their contest with GW, the Owls dropped a match up with cross-town rival Penn earlier in the week.
The Quakers scored in the first minute of play and added three more before the end of the first half in a 4-0 victory over Temple. Penn goalkeeper Jeff Groeber picked up his second shutout of the season as the Quakers improved their record to 3-3 overall with the victory.
The Owls will look to snap their losing streak and collect their first A-10 win this weekend when they host Rhode Island Friday at 3:30 p.m. and UMass Sunday at 1 p.m. Both games will be played at Temple Stadium.
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