When the Owls dug themselves a four-goal hole three minutes into Wednesday’s Big 5 game against city rival St. Joseph’s, coach Bonnie Rosen knew she needed to wake her team up.
“I reminded them to start playing hard and that they need to get the ball,” Rosen said. “It was basically a firm reminder of what we prepared for and it was time to get going.”
The Owls (3-1) responded to their coach’s message, picking up thrilling 14-13 come-from-behind win against the Hawks at Sweeney Field.
“This win means a lot,” senior midfielder Morgan Glassford said. “We just came off of a big loss so having this win and having it be a close game is just awesome.”
St. Joe’s took control early in the game and scored the first goal with 29 minutes, 27 seconds left to play in the first half. The Hawks then went on a 3-0 run that continued until 28:11 when Temple called a timeout.
The Hawks scored again after the timeout with 27:31 left to play to go up 4-0. Temple’s defense caused a turnover with 27:06 left to play and that seemed to be all it needed.
On the Owls’ first possession of the game senior attacker Carly Demato got an assist from graduate attacker Brenda McDermott to make the game 4-1.
Demato led the Owls on offense scoring four goals on six shots. McDermott and Glassford also contributed to the efforts with three goals each. McDermott added two assists.
Demato scored her next three goals within four minutes of each other to help the Owls take a 5-4 lead with 17:09 left in the first half. Freshman midfielder and attacker Olivia Thompson added another goal with 14:36 to play to make the score 6-4.
St. Joe’s battled back and tied the game with 1:11 left in the half on a goal from sophomore Rebecca Lane. Lane led both teams with five goals.
The Owls won the draw and McDermott got Temple the lead back with four seconds left in the half when she scored an unassisted goal.
“Brenda has these momentum goals all the time,” Rosen said. “Every time she finishes a goal is huge, and the emotional lift is always great.”
Temple carried that momentum into the second half. The Owls scored five goals and held St. Joe’s to two for the first 23 minutes of the second half.
“Team defense wise we played really well together,” Rosen said. “And offensively being able to put our goals in was critical to take some of that pressure off that defense.”
A McDermott goal with 7:10 left to play gave the Owls a 14-10 lead, their largest of the game.
The Hawks scored two more goals and added at third with 51 seconds left to play to make it a one-goal game. But the Owls got control of the draw, something they had been having trouble with throughout the game, and kept control in the final 46 seconds to come away with the win.
Redshirt-freshman goalie Kelsea Hershey got the win. She gave up nine goals and had eight saves in 51 minutes of play.
After suffering a leg injury with 8:37 left to play she was replaced by freshman goalie Maryn Lowell. In her eight minutes of relief, Lowell gave up four goals and had four saves.
“The numbers of saves today is a big jump for us,” Rosen said. “Kelsey had a great game and with Maryn stepping in at the end and doing a really nice job, that was huge for us today. They’ve been working hard in practice and we have been working everyday on the elements of goalkeeping and it’s nice to see that pay off in the game.”
Temple’s defense played a large role in the win causing 18 St. Joe’s turnovers and 23 ground balls.
St. Joe’s had 15 draw controls on the day, including 11 in the first half, while Temple recorded 14. The Owls out-shot the Hawks 33-32.
After only scoring 3 goals and giving up 19 in their previous game against Princeton, this win was a much needed confidence boost for the Owls.
“We knew this was a city rival and we came in ready,” said junior defender Nicole Latgis. “We didn’t feed into their attitude, so instead of getting upset about what they said to us, we just let it pump us up.”
Tessa Sayers can be reached at teresa.sayers@temple.edu. Follow The Temple News on Twitter @TheTempleNews and @TTN_Sports.
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