Temple Men’s Soccer entered their match against Monmouth with serious momentum. The Owls were coming off a gutsy win against Villanova on Sunday for their first victory of the season.
The Owls were looking to maintain that momentum against the Hawks Thursday night. However, the momentum was zapped 21 minutes into the contest when midfielder Patrick Osiecki put Monmouth on the board first.
The Hawks added another goal for good measure in the 54th minute, but it did not matter as the Owls were unable to generate much offense throughout the game, suffering their first loss of the season.
Monmouth (2-0-0, 0-0-0 Coastal Athletic Association) sprinted past Temple (1-1-1, 0-0-0 American Athletic Conference) 2-0 at the Temple Sports Complex Thursday night. The Owls scored first in its opening two games, but failed to get on the board at all for the first time this season.
“We know what we’re expecting in attack and decision making and then we know our expectations defensively,” said head coach Bryan Green. “It’s nothing too complicated.”
Temple has had a knack for being aggressive early and Thursday night was no different. The Owls fired off seven shots in the first 45 minutes of the game and three found the keeper. Monmouth goalkeeper Eryk Dymora didn’t let up a goal in the Hawks first game against Fairfield and kept his clean sheet streak going, with each shot finding his gloves.
Monmouth didn’t let Dymora’s efforts go to waste, breaking through in the 24th minute. Osiecki shot a goal home past goalkeeper Flannan Riley to convert their first shot on goal of the night and break the tie.
The Hawks clamped down on defense from then on out, refusing to let their foot off the gas. The aggression resulted in racking up eight fouls in the first half, but the Owls were unable to maximize the opportunities and went into the half down by a goal.
“The way we play, teams are going to be fouling us,” Green said. “We needed more intensity, and more pressure defensively.”
Temple entered the second half desperate to score, but after the first 26 minutes the Owls were still without a goal and on the ropes. They attempted a corner kick, but no shot on goal arose from the opportunity and continued searching to get on the board.
While the Owls struggled to get going, Monmouth delivered a knockout blow when forward Brendan Tansey found midfielder Erik Reis who put the ball in the back of the net and sealed the end of the Owls’ comeback hopes in the 54th minute.
It was a tale of two halves for the Owls, they got seven shots off in the first half but were dead in the water in the second with four. Many of those shots came when the game was well in hand.
“We did a good job in the first half making decisions to get shots, but our decision making went the other way in the second half,” Green said. “We have to stay together and do what we do.”
Temple will look to bounce back when they travel to American University (0-1-1, 0-0-0 Patriot League) on Sept. 2 at 7 p.m.
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