Owls dismantled in upsetting final game of the season

Temple Men’s Soccer (4-9-3, 1-7-1 American Athletic Conference) faced off against the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (9-4-2, 3-4-2 American Athletic Conference) on Wednesday night in their final game of the season and first-ever matchup with each other. The Owls fought hard on their senior night, but in the end, it wasn’t enough to handle the 49ers’ creative offense which generated 14 shots on the Owls’ defense. Temple finished last in the American Athletic Conference after a disappointing season.

KEY PLAYS

• On a corner kick in the 17th minute, redshirt junior forward Sean Karani found freshman defender Guy Panzner in the box who sent a header wide left.
• In the 21st minute, Charlotte went up 1-0 after a loose ball found junior defender Nick Scott, who buried the shot in the bottom left corner of the net.
• The 49ers scored their second goal of the night after junior midfielder Matthew Kirk crossed a ball to freshman midfielder Brad Dildy. Dildy flicked the ball to sophomore forward Filip Jauk for the goal in the 36th minute.
• Charlotte continued to dominate the game after senior midfielder Kameron Lacey recovered a missed shot, burying it past the Owls’ redshirt junior goalkeeper Eoin Gawronski for a 3-0 lead in the 54th minute.
• Lacey scored his second goal of the night after tapping in a pass from Dildy to put the 49ers up 4-0.
• Temple got on the board in the 63rd minute after freshman midfielder George Medill located senior forward Chaim Roserie for a last-ditch effort goal. 
• Charlotte went up 5-1 after sophomore forward Brigham Larsen tucked a shot past Gawronski, pushing the game further out of reach.

THE NUMBERS

• Gawronski and Charlotte freshman goalkeeper Sebastian Culter-DeJesus both finished the night with four saves.
• Fifth-year defender Fabian Grant, graduate defender Fridtjof Andberg, freshman defender Sawyer Koza and Panzner played the full 90 minutes for Temple.

WORDS FROM THE COACH

“We made it too easy,” said head coach Brian Rowland. “[Charlotte] competed really hard to make it difficult for us and we missed chances.”

“This is probably the most foundation that we’ve had since maybe my first year,” Rowland said. “We’ve got five or six freshmen that are really good players that we can build around.”