Friday’s win was a blueprint on how the Owls want to play every game.
The Owls came out flying, scoring four goals in the first 11 minutes on their way to a 5-1 win over Delaware.
“Our goal is to come out strong every game and try to put as much pressure on the other team as we can” senior midfielder Nicole Kroener said. “We got some good chances early and we did what needed to make those chances count.”
As the inserter for penalty corners Kroener is usually the one setting up the chances. But, on the second penalty corner of the game for the Owls, she was able to put one to the back of the net off a rebound for her third goal of the season and gave Temple a 4-0 lead.
“It’s important to put home those chances down low when you get them and that is my job after the insertion, to just wait on the back post for those rebound opportunities” Kroener said.
The Owls held Delaware to one goal and four shots on goal, compared to the 13 shots on goal Temple was able to get. They also had the big advantage in penalty corners with 11 compared to Delaware’s three.
Kroener believes the effective play roots from a focus on protecting the circle on defense.
“We’ve made it an emphasis this year to keep it out of our circle and limit the number of corner opportunities the other team gets” Kroener said “We can still improve on our marking in the circle but, our defense has been working really hard in practice on this and on intercepting passes”
As a senior co-captain she does her best to help some of the younger players in their development.
“It’s a lot of positioning and letting them know where they need to be and when to push up on offense or drop back on defense” Kroener said “We expect to be a top 10 team this year, so we have to hold everybody to that high standard as the season progresses.”
Jacob Guzdek can be reached at jacob.matthew.guzdek@temple.edu.
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