Women’s soccer goes winless during road trip

Temple University women’s soccer looked tired by the end of their two-game road trip.

The Owls dropped games to Cincinnati on Thursday and East Carolina (8-5-2, 3-4, American Athletic Conference) on Sunday.

On two days of rest, Temple (6-8-1, 2-3-1 American Athletic Conference) fell to ECU, 1-0 in Greenville, North Carolina.

The Pirates were scheduled to play Connecticut at home on Thursday, but the game was postponed due to Hurricane Michael, giving the team six days of rest.

“Unfortunately, we just didn’t have enough going forward,” Coach Seamus O’Connor said. “We just couldn’t find the right combinations of players to execute our attacking plan.”

Pirates’ sophomore forward Tori Riggs scored the only goal of the match in the 53rd minute.

Despite the loss, O’Connor said he thought the Owls played well defensively, but a few players stood out: junior goalkeeper Morgan Basileo, sophomore defender Natalie Druehl, sophomore midfielder Julia Dolan and senior midfielder Juliet Esposito.

Basileo made six saves on seven shots. Dolan’s header off a corner kick in the eighth minute forced Pirates’ redshirt-sophomore goalkeeper Melanie Stiles to make a save. Druehl hit the crossbar on a free kick in the 36th minute.

Before the ECU loss, Temple recorded its first draw of the season after a 2-2 decision against Cincinnati (6-8-3, 1-5-2 The American) Thursday in Ohio.

Both teams went scoreless until the 24th minute when Bearcats’ freshman forward Vanessa DiNardo scored her first goal of the season.

Freshman forward Gabriela Johnson and sophomore forward Emma Wilkins recorded all five of Temple’s shots on goal with three and two respectively. Both forwards found the back of the net in the second half. Johnson scored in the 54th minute, her fifth goals this season. Wilkins tallied her team-leading sixth goal to give the Owls the lead in the 63rd minute.

“After allowing the goal, we told the girls not to worry and there was plenty of time left,” O’Connor said. “We made a couple of adjustments and put a couple players in and it worked for us.”

Cincinnati responded in the 75th minute with a goal from senior forward Jill Vetere to tie the game and force overtime. Vetere leads the Bearcats with six goals.

After two overtime periods, neither team could find the winning goal.

Temple will be at home for their final three games, starting Thursday against Tulsa.

“I think being at home will be good,” O’Connor said. “This was a rough trip. We just need a little more discipline going forward. I think we just need to stick to our game plan attacking-wise. We just need to find the right group that will attack.”