Temple University women’s soccer (4-8-4, 2-4-1 The American Athletic Conference) played to a 0-0 draw against Central Florida (8-2-3, 3-1 The AAC) in Orlando, Florida Thursday night.
The Owls tallied just three total shots. The Knights, who are ranked No. 21 in the United Soccer Coaches poll, took 26 shots and had 11 on net. Temple senior goalkeeper Morgan Basileo saved all 11 shots.
“I’m not a big stats guy,” coach Seamus O’Connor said. “Some of their shots ended up hitting the moon on the way there. They went so far over the goal. They probably had five to seven quality chances, but some of those shots were useless. We did a great job of making sure that if they were going to get a chance it was going to be from distance, and then [Basileo] would make a save.”
The Knights put the pressure on early, with their first shot coming less than a minute in from sophomore forward Kristen Scott.
The Owls had their first chance of the game in the 4th minute. Sophomore midfielder Hailey Gutowski sent a bending corner kick on to net, but Knights redshirt freshman goalkeeper Caroline DeLisle got a hand on the ball and deflected it out of play.
In the 22nd minute, Scott dribbled out of the way of a defender and took a hard, line-drive shot on net, but Basileo dove to her left to make the save to keep the game scoreless.
Basileo was back at it again in the 31st minute when she made back-to-back saves with her feet, first on junior midfielder Madison Murning, then on sophomore midfielder Dayana Martin.
At the end of the first 45 minutes, the Owls and Knights were still scoreless. The Knights tallied eight shots, while the Owls had just one shot.
In the 53rd minute, junior defender Bella Sorrentino stopped a counterattack by pushing a Knights forward off the ball and clearing it out.
“[Sorrentino] is tremendous,” O’Connor said. “A ton of improvement from last year. She’s just been so good and one of our top defenders. She’s one of the best in the conference, so she’s really stepped up this year.”
At the top of the box in the 61st minute, Scott had plenty of space to work with and took a rising shot on net. Basileo missed the ball, but it hit the bar and went out of bounds.
In the 68th minute, sophomore forward Gabriela Johnson put pressure on the Knights’ backline and put a strong shot on net, but DeLisle made an easy save.
The two teams were deadlocked at 0-0 after regulation and headed to the first ten minute overtime period. The Knights led in the shot department with 19, while the Owls had just three.
The Knights had a chance to end the game in the 98th minute, but Basileo thwarted them again. Neither team could get a shot in the next two minutes, and they headed to the second and final overtime period.
Basileo made three more saves during the second overtime to keep the Owls in the game. Those were the final shots of the match, as the Owls and Knights both left the field scoreless.
“Absolutely great performance,” O’Connor said. “There was luck on both sides. They were lucky we didn’t score, and we were lucky they didn’t score, but I thought it was a great performance by our team. We executed the game plan very well. It was one of our best performances.”
The Owls will continue their Florida road trip on Sunday at 1 p.m. when they face off with South Florida (9-3, 4-1 The AAC) in Tampa.
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