After starting the season off with a four-game winning streak, the Owls found themselves in a two-game skid before facing the Binghamton Bearcats on Friday.
When the final whistle sounded, Temple was no longer winless at home.
“I think we definitely needed a win on our home field,” sophomore defender Erin Lafferty said. “Last weekend was just a bad weekend, but we moved on and were ready to go this weekend.”
The Owls were scoreless in the first half even after dominating the Bearcats in shots (10 to 4) and corner kicks (6 to 1). But in the second half, a converted penalty kick by Lafferty helped end a two-and-a-half game scoring drought.
“Kaylee [Harner] took the girl on and ran, and the girl just took her out,” Lafferty said. “She basically earned the goal for me. I just had the opportunity to take the PK and I put it in.”
Minutes later, Harner helped create another goal. This time, freshman midfielder Elaine Byerley’s shoulder put the ball in the back of the net.
“Kaylee got the ball in the corner, and there was a girl running with me,” Byerley said. “I just tried to get whatever I could and get it in. It actually went in off my shoulder.”
First year coach Seamus O’Connor knows how hard his team has been working, and was happy that the training paid off.
“It’s good because I guess it gives the players justification for how hard they’ve been working and the way they play,” he said. “The result on Sunday really just burned us up because we played really well and just didn’t put in the net. Today we played really well but it went in the net.”
Even with all the scoring chances, O’Connor wants his girls to remain optimistic.
“I’ve been trying to explain to the girls, ‘we don’t want to be too greedy’, you gotta appreciate the fact that we’re getting the chances,” O’Connor said. “You keep creating chances like that, you’re gonna score.”
The Owls will look to continue their road winning streak Sunday in Easton against Lafayette. O’Connor wants to keep that momentum going into the conference schedule later this fall.
“We’re still unbeaten on the road, but we go game by game—the girls aren’t gonna be too high or too low off this game today,” he said. “We would like to keep that streak going so that when we go on the road in the American, which is gonna be a great challenge for us, we have a chance to win.”
Steve Bohnel can be reached at sbohnel@gmail.com or on Twitter @SteveSportsGuy1.
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