Three different Owls registered goals to help Temple defeat Columbia University 3-1 Tuesday at Ambler Sports Complex in the Owls’ last non-conference game of the season.
Freshman midfielder Hermann Doerner, sophomore forward/midfielder Joonas Jokinen and junior defender Carlos Moros Gracia each found the back of the net for Temple (9-3-2, 1-3 American Athletic Conference), which won its second straight game after a four-game losing streak spanning Sept. 26 to Oct. 7.
“It feels really good to get the win, I think it instilled a lot more confidence back into us,” sophomore defender Kevin Klett said. “We’re more comfortable out on the field, and I think that’s showing in our play.”
In the 26th minute of play, a pass found its way to freshman midfielder Belal Mohamed near the top left corner of the box. Mohamed trapped the pass with his chest and gave a touch pass to the middle where a streaking Doerner capitalized with a left-footed goal that went over the head of Columbia’s senior goalkeeper Kyle Jackson.
Less than 20 seconds later Mohamed delivered a ball from behind midfield toward Columbia’s goal. Jokinen raced down the right sideline to retrieve the pass, beating a Lions defender 1-on-1 to chip the ball over Jackson’s head.
Coming into the game Columbia had given up five goals on the season.
“To score three goals on that team I think says a lot about our guys and how they played today,” coach David MacWilliams said. “We did some great stuff, we moved the ball around well and created a lot of issues for them.”
The Owls’ final goal of the day came as the result of a corner kick. In the 50th minute junior defender Stefan Mueller delivered a ball from the right corner which found sophomore defender Brendon Creed’s head.
Creed directed the ball to junior and fellow defender Carlos Moros Gracia who was in the middle of the field, and with a diving effort, Gracia headed the ball again into the net.
The Lions’ goal came on a penalty kick in the 89th minute ending Temple’s bid for a second-straight shutout.
After Creed and a Columbia defender got into a collision inside the box, junior defender Joe Morris beat a diving redshirt sophomore Alex Cagle for his first goal this season.
“It happens every time. … When you’re three goals up you’re going to slip a couple times,” Jokinen said. “I don’t think anyone was really worried at any point. We had a couple chances ourselves to score more than we did, so we’re not too worried.”
Dan Newhart can be reached at dan.john.newhart@temple.edu or on Twitter @dannynewhart
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