Following Temple Women’s Soccer’s four-goal loss to Wake Forest on Aug. 22, the Owls were searching for answers. They went into halftime tied with the Demon Deacons before an onslaught of goals ruined any hopes of head coach Chris Shaw securing his first victory as Temple’s head coach.
Thursday’s matchup against Iona seemed to be the perfect matchup for Temple to get its first victory. The Gaels won just one game in 2023 and both squads were level after the first half of the game. But Temple collapsed again, giving up two second-half goals in a six-minute span. The Owls didn’t have the offensive firepower to storm back, losing yet another game.
Temple (0-4, 0-0 American Athletic Conference) fell to Iona (1-2-2, 0-0 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) 2-0 Thursday afternoon. The Owls stretched their losing streak to four games to open up the season, being outscored 11-0 during the stretch.
The game remained level through the first half, with Temple goalkeeper Tamsin Bynoe saving four shots on goal. No momentum came from Bynoe’s efforts and the Owls were stagnant on the Iona side of the field, being called offsides six times and negating any chance of creating a potent offensive attack.
The Owls’ defensive efforts held the Gaels in check throughout the first half, going into the locker room tied at zero. But their luck went away in the second half and Temple quickly unraveled.
Iona forward Payton Foster broke the tie just six minutes into the second half as she scored her first goal of the season with an assist from forward Kate McNally. The duo struck again a mere six minutes later, giving Iona a commanding two-goal advantage.
The Owls’ offense did improve coming out of the locker room, outshooting Iona 6-5, but Iona goalkeeper Kayla Kalbaugh finished the outing with two saves.
Owls’ forward Shari Atkins got off two of her game-leading five shots in the second half, but the attempts didn’t lead to goals and the Owls have now gone 12 games without finding the back of the net.
The Owls will look to break their losing streak when they take on William & Mary (1-2, 0-0 Coastal Athletic Association) on Sept. 1 in Williamsburg, Virginia, at 1 p.m.
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