After conceding a goal early in the first half, Temple responded with three of its own to earn a 3-1 victory on senior day against Cincinnati Saturday at Ambler Sports Complex.
Before kickoff Temple honored its four seniors—midfielder/ forward Jared Martinelli, midfielder Josh Tagland, goalkeeper Pat Lestingi and forward Dalton Andrusko.
With the win, the Owls (10-5-2, 2-5 American Athletic Conference) bounced back from two consecutive losses, as well as a 3-2 conference loss to the Bearcats Sept. 26.
“It was a great day,” Martinelli said. “As a senior being here for four years, to go out with a win I couldn’t ask for much more.”
Cincinnati got on the board in the 15th minute when senior midfielder/ forward Alejandro Garcia delivered a pass to senior midfielder Stefan Bangsund, who beat redshirt-sophomore goalkeeper Alex Cagle with a sliding finish.
In the 16th minute, Temple junior midfielder Jorge Gomez Sanchez got behind the Bearcats’ back line and was tripped up before attempting a shot by redshirt-sophomore goalkeeper Pedro Diaz.
Diaz was called for a foul on the shot, and Sanchez was awarded a penalty kick.
Diaz blocked the penalty kick, but the rebounded found the foot of freshman midfielder Belal Mohamed, who scored his second goal of the season.
Temple had given up the opening goal in each of its previous two losses to Tulsa Oct. 17 and UConn Oct. 21, both 2-0 losses.
“Lately, when the other team scores first it’s been very hard for us to bounce back,” Mohamed said. “Today, fortunately they scored and then we did, then we scored again so it was nice.”
Cincinnati sophomore captain and defender Vebjorn Krovel went down in the 36th minute with an injury and Temple took advantage shortly after.
In the 38th minute Cagle booted a ball just past midfield to Mohamed, who delivered a pass to a streaking Sanchez near the left center of the box. Sanchez was able to beat the keeper for his 12th goal of the season.
In the 41st minute, freshman defender Hermann Doerner delivered a free kick to the center of the field, finding the foot of junior midfielder Justin Stoddart, who passed to junior defender Carlos Moros Gracias in front of the net.
On Gracias’ shot attempt, Bearcat’s defender Christian Hay used his hand to block Gracia’s shot, drawing a red card.
Gracia was awarded a penalty kick, scoring his second goal of the season.
For the game, the Owls registered 20 shots to Cincinnati’s five.
“It showed a lot from the guys after we gave up that first one to come back and score three goals,” coach David MacWilliams said. “I think we had a lot of chances other than the two penalty kicks and we just didn’t finish them. We’ll take the three goals and the win.”
Dan Newhart cane be reached at dan.newhart@temple.edu
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