It was a game of two halves for Temple women’s soccer.
After not allowing Villanova (3-2-1) to score on nine shots in the first half, Temple (1-3-1) let three of the Wildcats’ shots into the net during the second.
Villanova shut out Temple, 3-0, on Sunday afternoon at the Temple Sports Complex.
“The first half was outstanding,” Coach Seamus O’Connor said. “We had at least two quality chances that we thought we could’ve scored on. All of three of [the goals] were individual mistakes by us. We just made individual mistakes and it can’t happen.”
Wildcats sophomore midfielder Brice McInroy broke the tie in the 53rd minute after a scramble for the ball in the Owls’ goal box.
About three minutes later, McInroy scored her second goal of the game to extend the Wildcats’ lead to two.
Wildcats sophomore forward Allison Breed scored off a header in the 65th minute to seal the win.
Senior goalkeeper Morgan Basileo made seven saves and only allowed the three goals in the losing effort.
“Our defending from the front to the back kind of suffered from the first to the second half,” Basileo said. “They were able to split us and get goals across. Our defending goal side was subpar. We can definitely work on that in the next few days.”
The Owls struggled to find opportunities to score throughout the game. They only registered three shots on goal, while the Wildcats finished with 19. The Wildcats tallied six corner kicks, while the Owls finished with one.
One of the Owls’ best opportunities to score came off a corner kick by junior defender Marissa DiGenova in the 25th minute. DiGenova sent the ball to junior defender Natalie Druehl who fired a shot, but was denied by Wildcats sophomore goalkeeper Hensley Hancuff. Hancuff only had to save three of the Owls’ shots.
Sunday’s game was a physical one for the Big 5 rivals. The Owls committed 18 fouls, while the Wildcats amassed six. Both teams were given two yellow cards each.
“It got quite heated,” O’Connor said. “It got very emotional. That’s what you need because every conference game looks like that.”
The Owls will next go on the road to the University of Maryland on Thursday at 7 p.m.
One of the areas the Owls will need to improve on heading into the match with the Terrapins is goal scoring, junior midfielder Julia Dolan said. The Owls have not scored in three of their five games.
“We need to take this loss and we learn from it,” Dolan said. “We need to keep working at what we do well. We need to work at defending as a whole team from front to back and getting forward and putting goals into the net.”
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