Temple defeats USC behind career day from freshman

Schwaab nets hat trick, career-high six points in win.

A career-high of six total points for freshman attacker Rachel Schwaab led Temple to a 12-7 victory at the University of Southern California, on Wednesday, March 13.

“It was a really good team win,” Schwaab said.

For Temple (5-1), the victory against USC (4-5,2-1 MPSF) is it’s first win in two tries during a three game California road trip, after having it’s four game winning streak halted by Stanford. The Owls now stand at 5-1, and are yet to play a game in-conference.

After recording a season-low one point on a single assist Sunday against Stanford, Schwaab led the way with a hat trick and three assists against USC.

“She played within herself,” coach Bonnie Rosen said. “She played within the team offense. Give the credit to her keeping the game simple and the fact that our team is taking care of the ball.”

Senior midfielders Charlotte Swavola, Stephany Parcell, Kellee Pace and freshman midfielder Avery Longstaff all added to the scoreboard with two goals each. Junior midfielder Lea Britton also added a goal.

In her fourth win of the season, senior goalie Meghan Clothier recorded four saves and allowed seven goals.

Swavola recorded a team-high three caused turnovers, and tied for the lead in ground balls with freshman midfielder Kirstie Connor, collecting three.

For the Trojans, they lose their second straight game and fall below a .500 record. Against Temple, freshman midfielder Amanda Johansen recorded a team-high three goals. Freshmen attackers Caroline de Lyra and Caroline Cordrey added two goals each.

Freshman goalkeeper Liz Schaeffer recorded a game-high eight saves, but allowed 12 goals.

After dropping their first game of the year to Stanford, the Temple Owls rebounded with a victory against one of the top Division 1 offenses, in USC. After averaging over 14 goals per game in their previous eight games, the Trojans were held to seven goals versus Temple.

“We’ve been fortunate enough to be able to scout USC. We knew their players were tough and we were prepared to make them have to earn their scoring opportunities,” Rosen said.

Within the first five minutes of gameplay, the Owls scored the game’s first two goals courtesy of Pace and Schwaab scores.

After falling behind, the Trojans answered with a run of three unanswered goals to make the score 3-2. Then the Owls closed out the half with a 2-1 run, which included Pace’s second goal of the day.

After the closing scoring run by Temple, the score was knotted up at four going into the half.

“The first half was quite a battle. USC sat back defensively and our offense was actually a little stagnant,” Rosen said.

The beginning of the second half started with a big offensive run by Temple, which would decide the game.

“We started a little slow, so we just had to get the pace up and started playing our game,” Schwaab said.

In a 5-1 scoring run, Schwaab, Parcell, and Britton scored three unanswered goals, while Swavola responded to a USC point by netting two consecutive goals.

Another USC goal would be wiped out by three more goals by Parcell, Schwaab, and Longstaff, essentially ending the Trojans’ comeback bid. The Owls outscored the Trojans 8-3 in the final period.

“The combination of playing a very strong team and dealing with having to come back from a first loss was a very big test for the team and I’m really proud of how we responded,” Rosen said.

Brien Edwards can be reached at brien.edwards@temple.edu or on twitter @BErick1123.

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