The men’s soccer team failed to complete its second come from behind victory this weekend after falling to George Washington 2-0.
After rallying from an early 2-0 deficit against Richmond last Friday, men’s soccer traveled to Washington and was shut out by the Colonials on Sunday. The Owls went 1-1 in Atlantic Ten Conference play during the weekend in their first two divisional matchups of the season.
Temple outshot George Washington 11-5 in the first half, but failed to put any in the back of the net.
“We dominated the first half and had many chances, but we didn’t take advantage of them,” coach David MacWilliams said.
The game remained scoreless until Colonials’ junior forward Seth Rudolph was set up by sophomore Abdul Shaban and slipped the game-winning goal by the Owls’ goalkeeper Bobby Rosato at the 57th minute. Rosato, a sophomore, stopped seven of the nine shots he encountered in the game. George Washington junior midfielder Zach Abaie secured the victory by adding another goal with 1:37 left in the game.
MacWilliams said the Owls didn’t come out in the second half with the same amount of energy they showed in the first 45 minutes.
“We looked like we were tired and just didn’t have any energy,” MacWilliams said. “I told the guys that the first goal was going to be key, but we came out in the second half with heavy legs.”
Temple sophomore Dalton Carroll came the closest to tying the game in the 79th minute when he clunked a shot off the cross-bar out of goalkeeper junior Alejandro Almodovar’s reach, who stopped all 15 shots he faced and notched his third shutout of the season. Senior midfielder Tyler Witmer also had a couple chances late in the game. At the 84th and 86th minute marks, Witmer fired two shots on net, but both were stopped by Almodovar. Witmer had a game-high five shots with four of them on goal.
“There wasn’t anybody that stood out today,” MacWilliams said. “It was our second game in 48 hours, but that’s no excuse for looking worn out. We didn’t want to be chasing the game and we were put into a situation where we had to.”
With the loss, Temple dropped to 5-6 on the season. George Washington has started out A-10 play winning its first two divisional games this weekend. Along with the win over Temple, the Colonials also defeated St. Joe’s 4-0 last Friday in its A-10 opener.
“We’ve had some key injuries that have really hurt us,” MacWilliams said. “I think our record is a fair indication of how we’ve played so far.”
The Owls will look to get back on track when they host A-10 rival St. Joe’s Saturday, Oct. 15 in their next matchup.
Tyler Sablich can be reached at tyler.sablich@temple.edu.
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