After winning the opening draw control Sunday at Geasey Field, University of California at Davis worked patiently in the offensive end, spending four minutes, 16 seconds on the attack until freshman midfielder Taylor Cuenin scored the opening goal of the game.
It would be the Aggies only consistent attack for a long stretch, as the Owls went on a 7-0 scoring run in the first half in their 17-4 win on Sunday.
After Cuenin’s goal, senior defender Maddie McTigue won the draw control allowing the Owls to go on the attack. Senior midfielder Kirstie Connor scored her first of two goals to tie the game at one. Senior midfielder Nicole Tiernan scored 19 seconds later to give the Owls the lead with 23:57 left in the first half.
The Owls never trailed for the remainder of the game.
Senior midfielder Megan Tiernan scored two of her three goals during the team’s 7-0 run. Megan Tiernan said after defending for a long stretch to start the game, it was important for the Owls to get on the attack
“The first defensive possession…it was a while,” Megan Tiernan said. “It was like four minutes and we held them for a long time, but they ended up scoring. So we really wanted to stop their momentum and get ours going. I think we had seven goals at least right off the ball, and that just helps us to keep our momentum going, give our attacks some confidence, and just bring it to them.”
UC Davis broke the 7-0 scoring run with 7:36 left in the half when freshman midfielder Shannon Cross beat redshirt-senior goalkeeper Jaqi Kakalecik on a shot from the right of the cage. Junior attacker Melissa Kellan scored 40 seconds later, prompting a timeout by Temple.
The Owls responded with a 5-0 scoring run. Senior attacker Brenda McDermott scored her third goal of the game 1:25 into the second half to give Temple a 10-3 lead.
“Me and [Rachel] Schwaab, we both play behind, so in transition if there’s not a fast break, we just like to kind of settle in and make sure that everyone’s on the same page,” McDermott said. “And just starting the ball from behind really works for us, just because me and Schwaab love to be there and we have a lot of great drivers up top too.”
The Owls closed the game on a 5-0 scoring run. Nine different players scored on Sunday.
“I think that’s a really good thing that our team has shown in the past couple games just that we don’t have to rely on a couple people to score,” Megan Tiernan said. “A lot of girls on our team have the ability to score anytime. So that just goes to show that our team, we just have a lot of depth and we don’t need to look at one person.”
Evan Easterling can be reached at evan.easterling@temple.edu or on Twitter @Evan_Easterling
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