In the 70th minute of Temple Men’s Soccer season opener against Army, the Owls were clinging to a 1-0 lead. However, Temple committed a foul on Army in the box gifting them a penalty kick, and a golden scoring opportunity.
Temple goalkeeper Riley Flannan had been perfect all evening, stopping everything that came his way. His perfect night ended there when he dove right on Army forward Gage Lynos’ penalty kick that rolled into the left side of the goal.
“I stayed patient and was looking at his eyes and sometimes eyes lie,” Flannan said. “He got me. Unfortunately, that’s the reality of penalties. I have a 50-50 chance and I guessed the wrong way. The team played well and the defense played well but we gave away a crappy goal. That’s just how soccer goes sometimes.”
The Owls quickly had a chance to respond and regain the lead, but the Black Knights’ defense held strong. Neither team was able to find the back of the net in the final 20 minutes and the game ended in a draw.
Temple (0-0-1, 0-0-0 American Athletic Conference) drew with Army (0-0-1, 0-0-0 Patriot League) 1-1 Thursday evening at the Temple Sports Complex. Temple held the lead for nearly 50 minutes before Army connected on the equalizer.
“We had some good moments but I thought we had a lot of first-game jitters,” said head coach Bryan Green. “We weren’t as clean in some moments and some moments that I thought we should have made simple we complicated at times.”
From the moment the Black Knights kicked the ball off, it was an intense and physical match. The Owls offense was aggressive early with midfielder Elias Bethancourt firing the first shot just two minutes into the game. The Black Knights turned the aggression on just a few minutes after, testing Temple’s defense.
Temple had the perfect counter to Army’s offensive onslaught, and finally broke through in the 24th minute. Bethancourt sent a pass into the center that midfielder George Medill one-timed into the top right corner of the net to give the Owls the early advantage.
Army consistently pressured Flannan, who stepped up and stopped every ball that came his way. The Black Knights got off eight shots in the first half, and though Flannan was only credited with two first-half saves, he came out of net multiple times to corral the ball before Army was able to get a shot off.
“I thought [Flannan] was really good coming off his line. In both halves, we surrendered a lot of free kicks and corner kicks and they are dangerous on crosses,” Green said. “He came out and took a lot of them out of the air and I think that helped settle us on the defensive end knowing we had him back there to help clean up crosses.”
The waning minutes of the first half saw the Black Knights have their best chance of breaking through. A shot from midfielder Colin McCarthy off a corner kick was sent towards the bottom of the net, but Flannan was once again in the way and preserved the Temple lead.
Temple’s defense continued to clamp down in the second half, outside of Army’s penalty goal. Army put nine more shots on goal, with just the one finding the back of the net. The Black Knights had a chance to take the lead with five minutes remaining, but Flannan stepped up and made another critical save, finishing with five total.
“My teammates gave me easy shots to save at the end of the day,” Flannan said. “It’s not all me, my defense gave me the ability to make good angles and find good decisions and fortunately I was able to keep everything out. They made my job easy tonight.”
In the final minute, Temple had one more opportunity to break the tie. The Owls had a corner kick in the final seconds but the ball was sent past the box and the buzzer sounded, finalizing the tie.
The Owls’ offense was aggressive throughout the game, firing off 16 shots — eight of those being on target. Temple ramped up their offensive aggression in the second half, launching 11 of their 16 shots in the final 45 minutes.
Army’s defense was physical throughout the match, at points even getting a little too physical. There were three yellow cards assessed to Black Knight players throughout the game.
Temple remains at home as they take on cross-town rival Villanova (0-0-1, 0-0-0 Big East) on Aug. 25 looking for their first win of the season.
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