Rosen’s squad survives second-half comeback, beats Georgetown on late goal

Temple lost its four-goal lead but held on to beat Georgetown University 11-9 on Saturday in Washington D.C.

With 26 minutes, 29 seconds left in the second half, freshman midfielder Kimmy Weinstock won the draw and took the ball downfield to score her first collegiate goal and give Temple its first lead of the second half.

The Owls kept their lead, except for a span of 2:09 late in the half, to beat Georgetown University 11-9 on Saturday in Washington, D.C.

“Today, one of the things we talked about was if you have an opportunity to transition to go to goal you should do it,” coach Bonnie Rosen said. “[Weinstock] did today and got a goal out of it, which was an important momentum swing for us, which was great.”

Temple (8-2, 2-1 Big East Conference) had seven players score on the day, but its biggest plays came from freshman goalkeeper Maryn Lowell. She played all 60 minutes and made 11 saves, including six in the first half and one at point-blank range with 3:29 left in the game, when the Owls held a one-goal lead.

“Early on Maryn made some big saves allowing the defense to settle in,” Rosen said. “From that point on, the longer the game went, on the more we figured out how to do it better.”

After Temple took a 9-5 lead, Georgetown sophomore attacker Morgan Ryan started a 4-0 run when she scored goals at the 17:32 and 12:37 marks. Sophomore midfielder Francesca Whitehurst scored her game-high fourth goal with 7:10 left to cut Georgetown’s deficit to one. Ryan netted her third goal with 3:21 left to tie the game.

Nearly two minutes later, Hoyas junior midfielder Hannah Seibel receive a yellow card, which gave Temple a man-up opportunity. Sophomore midfielder Amber Lambeth got the ball from freshman midfielder Kara Nakrasius and scored to give Temple its first goal in more than 19 minutes and a 10-9 lead.

“It was created off a great ground ball from Kara and Amber broke naturally and took the shot,” Rosen said. “So nothing about it was planned… some of our best goals happened when it isn’t the coaching plan.”

Graduate attacker Brenda McDermott won the ensuing draw, and senior attacker Anna Frederick added the final goal with 28 seconds left.

Lambeth and Frederick both had two goals. Lambeth also had an assist and two draw controls. Both teams had 11 draw controls. Two of the Owls’ draw controls came in the final minute. Senior midfielder Morgan Glassford led both teams with five draw controls. She also had three ground balls and one goal. Whitehurst led Georgetown with four draw controls.

Temple won 8-of-14 draws in the second half, despite Georgetown changing up who took the draw three times.

“We just got a little bit better at reading the ball and going hard and finishing our ground balls,” Rosen said. “We had our stick on a lot of those draw controls, but weren’t able to draw them in. We just stuck to the plan and got a little bit better throughout the whole game.”

The Owls got on the board first when McDermott scored with 28:59 left in the first half. McDermott led Temple with three goals and assists apiece. Her second goal came with 2:43 left in the half to put Temple up 4-3.

The Owls held Georgetown scoreless for nearly 14 minutes in the first half. The Hoyas responded by scoring two goals in less than two minutes to tie the game at three with 12:46 left to play. After 10:03 of scoreless play, McDermott broke the tie to end the first half.

Temple’s defense played a large role in its victory. Junior defender Nicole Latgis had three caused turnovers and three ground balls. As a team, Temple caused eight turnovers and collected 17 ground balls.

Georgetown sophomore attacker Taylor Gebhardt led the Hoyas with 26 points going into the game but was held to just one on Saturday.

“We marked Nicole up with Taylor Gebhardt and she did a fantastic job on her,” Rosen said. “We knew if she got going that could really hurt us. Nicole’s individual play on her was a key part in setting the defense.”

“But they just got better as a team throughout the game and that’s really the key,” Rosen added. “We know it’s never going to be about individual effort, it’s always going to be about the team, so I was really happy about that.”

The Owls will have three days of practice before they travel to Cincinnati, Ohio to take on the Bearcats on Wednesday. It is the Owls’ first weekday game since March 2.

“We have a short turn around,” Rosen said. “We have practice on Monday and we fly out on Tuesday. It’s been such a long time for a quick turn-around, so that will be our next challenge, recovering and getting ready with four and a half days of practice compared to five days of practice.”

Tessa Sayers can be reached at teresa.sayers@temple.edu or on Twitter @SayersTessa. Follow The Temple News @TheTempleNews and @TTN_Sports.

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