Thursday’s game against East Carolina University could have given Temple University women’s soccer the opportunity to climb The American Athletic Conference standings and continue building its resume for a conference tournament bid.
Instead, the Owls were outshot 20 to six, and could not keep up with the Pirates on the offensive end.
The Owls (3-5-3, 1-3 The American) lost 2-1 against the Pirates (6-7-1, 1-2-1, The American) on Thursday night for their second consecutive conference loss.
Temple came out hot as junior forward Emily Kavanaugh scored the Owls’ first goal at the 17-minute mark from inside the penalty box. It was her seventh goal of the season.
“[Kavanaugh] is someone who works endlessly hard,” said head coach Nick Bochette. “She does everything with the intent to get better and even when things go bad, she keeps a positive attitude and thinks of how she can help her team.”
The Pirates answered in the 42nd minute when freshman forward Samantha Moxie tied the game with a shot right in front of Owls’ junior goalkeeper Kamryn Stablein.
The Pirates struck again just before the 68-minute mark after graduate student forward Tori Riggs took a shot from the back of the penalty box that just got by a diving attempt by Stablein.
“We just never dug ourselves out of the hole in the second half,” Bochette said. “It seemed like once they got on top of us, we did not have that strength within us for whatever reason.”.
The Owls could not mount any offensive pressure during the second half, as they only recorded one shot, which came from graduate student defender Marrisa DiGenova, but was denied by Pirates’ sophomore goalkeeper Maeve English.
“We were outplayed in the second half,” Bochette said. “I do not think that it comes from a lack of effort. ECU stepped up their game, and we could not find the keys to unlock what they were doing.”
The Owls will look to get back in the win column when they travel to take on Long Island University (1-6-2, 1-3-1, The Northeast Conference) on Oct. 12 at 2 p.m.
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