Senior forward and midfielder Joonas Jokinen played a little game with Cincinnati redshirt-freshman goalkeeper Pearce Skinner.
As Jokinen lined up to take Temple’s penalty kick just more than seven minutes into the game, he stared down Skinner. He used his eyes to trick Skinner into diving right, but he shot to the left. The ball rolled past the goalkeeper for the Owls’ first goal of the game in their 2-1 win at the Temple Sports Complex on Saturday night.
Jokinen scored his first goal since Aug. 31.
“I let [freshman forward Alan Camacho Soto] take the last one, but not this time,” Jokinen said. “This time was all me. I was feeling really good about it.”
Junior midfielder Hermann Doerner added a goal in the 67th minute to help the Owls win their second conference game.
Temple (6-6-1, 2-2 The American) had many players create scoring chances. The Owls outshot the Bearcats 13-7, and Temple had seven shots on goal to Cincinnati’s one. Jokinen led Temple in shots with four, and eight Owls recorded at least one shot.
Junior midfielder Belal Mohamed and senior midfielder Matt Sullivan each could have scored, and sophomore forward Thibault Candia could have scored twice, coach David MacWilliams said.
Doerner’s goal was the game-winner and his first of the season to increase his point total to five. He scored off a corner kick to add to his three assists thus far.
“It was definitely really, really amazing,” Doerner said. “I know I’m happy that I could help the team, that we won the conference game and especially with the game-winning goal. It’s really good.”
Despite being up by two, Temple’s celebration was cut short when Cincinnati scored about two minutes later off a penalty kick. Sophomore goalkeeper Michael Samnik committed a foul when he went after the ball as a Bearcat approached the net. Samnik tripped him up and was penalized for grabbing his legs and not the ball.
Cincinnati scored off the penalty kick, removing the extra cushion the Owls thought they had earned.
“We were on a high note,” Jokinen said. “A minute or so later, concede a penalty, 2-1, and they’re back in it. But we battled, grinded toward the end and we got the result, so we’re really happy about that.”
Both teams had to battle through foul trouble. The teams combined for 40 fouls and 10 yellow cards.
Four Temple players were assessed yellow cards, including Doerner, who said he didn’t feel like he even deserved to be carded for the play. If a player is assessed a second yellow card, the two combine and count as a red card, which results in an ejection from the game and forces the player’s team to play shorthanded.
“It becomes a tough situation because now any challenge from that player from the rest of the game, you’re worried because, ‘Is the ref going to pull out a yellow card?’” MacWilliams said. “And now, in a conference game, are you going to be shorthanded? So all those things come into play.”
This is the second game in a row the Owls have questioned a foul call. On Oct. 7 against Southern Methodist, senior midfielder Brendon Creed committed a foul and got yellow carded. The play set up the sequence that led to the Mustangs’ game-winning goal. Upon reviewing the film after the game, the coaches did not think Creed’s tackle warranted a yellow card, Jokinen said.
The team will play its final nonconference game on Tuesday against the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
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