Owls dominate Tulsa in home win

Temple University men’s soccer (3-4-1, 3-4-1 The American Athletic Conference) defeated No. 23 the University of Tulsa (5-2-1, 5-2-1 The American) 4-1 at the Temple Sports Complex on Friday night.

It was Temple’s first time playing in nearly two weeks after its matchup against Memphis on March 27 got postponed.

Friday’s win marked the second time the Owls scored at least three goals in a match this year and the second time Temple beat a top-25 opponent this season.

After allowing four goals against the University of Central Florida in their last outing, the Owls backline held the Golden Hurricanes to just seven shots and one goal on Friday night while Temple’s offense set their season-high in goals scored in a game. 

“We wanted to make sure we would bounce back,” said senior defender Pierre Cayet. “Starting with this game, we focused on ourselves first and we were not really worried about the team we were playing. We were focusing on ourselves and our abilities.”

In the 13th minute, Owls sophomore forward Sean Karani threaded a shot past Golden Hurricanes junior goalkeeper Lucas Cline, putting Temple up 1-0.

The Owls continued the attack as freshman forward Nigel Griffith buried a break away goal in the 22nd minute to take a 2-0 lead.

Going into the half, head coach Brian Rowland told his team they needed to play with more intensity, he said.

“We have to win the second half,” Rowland added. “We wanted to show a little bit of malice, a little bit of intent to finish the game and not let the game hang around.”

In the 55th minute, junior midfielder Jalen Campbell connected on a pass across the box from Griffith to extend the lead to 3-0.

In the 73rd minute, Karani scored his second goal of the game on a deflected pass from Griffith to put the Owls up 4-0.

Tulsa redshirt-freshman midfielder Jonathan Cervantes tapped in a penalty kick shot that got past Temple freshman goalkeeper Eoin Gawronski in the 79th minute to make it 4-1.

Up next, Temple is heading to Tennessee to play against the University of Memphis (2-6-0, 2-6-0 The American) on April 6 at 1 p.m.