Temple Women’s Soccer (2-9-3, 0-5-0 American Athletic Conference) fell to Rice (3-10-1, 1-4-0 AAC) 1-0 at the Temple Sports Complex Thursday. Temple has dropped its last four games and remains winless in AAC play since November 2021.
Despite a strong defensive performance by Temple’s back line, the team could not break through on the other end of the pitch.
In the 80th minute, Rice forward Sophie Zhang found a gap and pushed the ball past Temple goalkeeper Taylor Vecchione to score the go-ahead goal. Rice’s defense sealed the deal, and Temple was shut out for the fourth straight game.
“In our game, goals are really hard to come by and possession only means something if you make something of it,” said Temple head coach Nick Bochette. “We can deal with not scoring as long as we’re creating chances and requiring our goalkeeper and defense to play really well.”
Both teams started the game slowly, having just five shots combined in the first half. Although Temple had two shots, Rice had three, including the only shot on goal. Vecchione was responsible for the only save of the first half and finished with three on the night.
Slow starts have become a bad habit for the Owls. While they have generated chances, they have been unable to connect the final pass to get onto the scoresheet. Despite the outcome, Temple had the majority of the chances in the contest, finishing with eight corners compared to Rice’s six.
“You’d like to think we get closer on that,” Bochette said. “Getting eight corners and being in the attacking third as much as we were, possession of the ball, we’re really happy with that, but we want to translate that into more chances and goals.”
Temple has just four games left in the regular season. As their playoff hopes look dire, Temple is focused on taking each game at a time as the season comes to a close, Bochette said.
“We’d much rather be at the top of the table talking about seeding and playoffs right now, there’s no doubt about it,” Bochette said. “I certainly won’t shy away from that. We’re disappointed that we haven’t won a conference game yet, but the truth of the matter is they’re talking about three points at a time. Every day they play, they’re trying to maximize what they have.”
Temple will try to maximize its opportunity next game when they take on UTSA (5-6-3, 0-3-2 AAC) on Oct. 15 at 2 p.m.
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