Mistakes Doom Temple As They Fall to SMU

Written By: Max Green

Photo Courtesy of: Owl Sports

It was a stampede at Temple Sports Complex Wednesday as the Mustangs of SMU came to North Broad and defeated Temple Women’s Soccer.

Temple again conceded a goal early in the game after Temple junior goalkeeper Kamryn Stablein made an initial save on a set-piece opportunity. SMU senior forward Jewel Boland tapped in the rebound.

“I know the question about the early goal would come up again. We still haven’t solved that. I thought we were much better in the first 10 minutes tonight,” said Head Coach Nick Bochette

Set pieces would prove to be a problem for the Owls after another set-piece was initially saved, and there was a mad dash for the ball. The ball would bounce around the six-yard box until SMU sophomore midfielder Wayny Balata netted the second SMU goal.

“We knew they were good on set pieces; that’s one of their MO’s. Our organization initially was good, and the bad news was our reaction after the initial ball was played is where we got kind of lax. A team like that is so good that giving away set-piece goals will always kill you cause they can earn their own goals. Definitely going to be a focus of ours, has to be,” said Bochette.

Coming out of halftime, Temple had to make a statement. Unfortunately for the Owls, they did the opposite as a giveaway right outside Temple’s 18-yard box, which led to SMU’s Jewel Boland getting the ball right outside the box with a chance to net her second goal, which she did, chipping the ball over goalkeeper Kamryn Stablein.

“We were much better at generating an attack in the first 10 minutes of the first half, but the first 10 minutes of the second half, I can’t say the same thing,” said Coach Bochette.

From there, the damage was done as Temple went down 3-0 and made it very hard to dig themselves out of the hole the team had dug for themselves.

However, the Owls kept trying and started creating many chances, but many could not find their way past SMU’s goalkeeper, Samantha Estrada, who totaled five saves. Temple would eventually find a breakthrough in the 85th minute when a pass from Temple freshman midfielder Lexi Enders made its way past Estrada to the foot of Temple sophomore forward Niara Sapp for an easy tap in to put the Owls on the scoreboard.

“A lot of people think scoring goals is a matter of kicking the ball hard or a talented striker, and it’s a team-oriented thing we have to put ourselves in positions to create those chances. I think we lacked that last piece tonight. They have a big, strong goalkeeper who came out to get many balls, so kicking the ball high over our heads was probably not the best idea. If we can lower those and hit them a bit harder and make runs to the near post instead of the far post, I like where we’re at. We’re getting into spaces to create chances, it’s just that final pass, or shot isn’t quite where it needs to be,” said Coach Bochette

Next up for the Owls is another quick turnaround as they will take on the Memphis Tigers this Sunday at the Temple Sports Complex to get back to their winning ways following this 3-1 defeat.