Heading into the game against No. 11 California, the Owls had lost their last three games. As the Owls were looking to come away with a home victory, the Golden Bears had other plans holding the Owls’ to one shot in the first half on their way to a 4-0 win.
The Bears’ sophomore forward Jordan O’Reilly made contributions during her homecoming. O’Reilly, a graduate from Upper Dublin High School, led California’s offense with two goals and an assist in the first half.
“It was really special to have a game like that today in front of all my family,” O’Reilly said. “They can’t come out to California to often to see me play. To perform the way I did today was really cool.”
Her teammate, freshman forward Lara Kruggel also gave the Owls fits all afternoon. Kruggel contributed a goal and an assist but her defense was what made her stand out. She constantly harassed Temple’s offensive attack making it difficult for them to attain possession past the midline.
California scored their first goal 10 minutes into the game courtesy of a pass from O’Reilly to the right side hitting Kruggel for an easy tip-in goal. O’Reilly added an unassisted goal off an easy rebound 10 minutes later. With less than seven minutes left in the first half O’Reilly struck again when she received a pass from the left side from junior forward Claire Dougherty to beat Temple’s sophomore goalie Lizzy Millen.
“We competed with them and played them tough,” coach Amada Janney said. “We just gave up a few soft goals in the first half and when you play a team as good as [California] you can’t do that if you want to win.”
Senior forward Megan Shimojima tossed one more goal in for the Golden Bears in the second half making the final score 4-0. On a brighter note for the Owls, they did not let Cal convert on any of their penalty corners as Millen turned away all five of them in the net.
“There are definitely good things we can take from this game,” Millen said. “We need to take the positives and carry them with us the rest of the season.”
California improves to 12-2-1 on the season as the Bears finish off their three-game Philadelphia road trip on Sunday when they face off against Drexel. As for the Owls, they drop to 3-8 on the season, losing their fourth game in a row.
On this four game losing skid, the Owls have only managed to produce two goals in all four games. They look for their fortunes to change on Sunday when they travel to Washington D.C. to face off against American.
Kieran McCauley can be reached at kieran.mccauley@temple.edu.
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